This is real life!!

FULL OF LIFE AND LAUGHTER

2011-01-19T20:07:00.012Z

Some days you wake up full of the joys of Spring, ready to meet the challenges the new day brings. Other days you drag yourself out of a lovely warm bed, grit your teeth, shuffle into the bathroom, struggle into your clothes. Every step is torn from you and you wonder what life is all about.

Yesterday began as a shitty day, it didn't get much better, rude staff, rude students. Feeling tired and lacking lustre after a spiritually demanding day I took myself home and decided that I was going to immerse myself in TV world. I wanted to watch something that was entertaining, perhaps frivolous but certainly something that would lift my drooping spirit. I found all these things in the following.

I began the evening with a film called 'Beauty Shop', which boasted many well known names, Queen Latifah, Alicia Silverstone, Andie MacDowell, Alfre Woodard, Mena Suvari, Della Reese, Djimon Hounsou and not forgetting Kevin Bacon as a very strange Austrian hairstylist. This film is hilarious, full of life and humour, full of larger than life character. Maybe it's a bit predictable, the baddies get their comeuppance and the downtrodden are raised up, but call me old fashioned, when you are feeling down this type of film is the best medicine.

The other priceless bit of TV history was 'Big Fat Gypsy Weddings', where a little girl wore a giant pink dress, which was double the size of the child and half her weight, it had been embroidered with real crystals!! This poor child thought she looked like a fairy princess, she couldn't walk properly and and had to kick her dress forward and wave her arms about like a demented Barbie blancmange. To add insult to injury her little friends all laughed hysterically as they watched her trying to get into the church - classic!! Link here I hope it works?!! While you are visiting the giant pink blancmange, please also take a look at Josie's wedding dress - apparently she chose it because it is "classy" - oh well each to his own.

I finished the evening feeling incredibly light headed from all the laughter and not at all guilty that I spent the evening watching trash.

Try it sometime you might like it. :)

G'night - I am just going to slip into my diamond encrusted pyjamas.

Jo xx

LIFE, VAGUENESS AND THE UNION REPRESENTATIVE

2011-01-12T21:27:00.007Z

I think I have found my modern day hero or should I say heroine - let me explain.

Life at work is much the same, kids asking questions, teachers asking questions, good things and not so good things. One of the not so good things at the moment is impending support staff restructuring or harmonisation as they keep calling it. Harmony is the furthest thing this restructuring is creating - it has caused anxiety, suspicion and extremely low morale amongst us who are considered the lowest of the low in the education world.

Today I attended a 'consultation' meeting, the third one in a long line of talking about nothing - how can there be any consultation, when no details have been given of the changes mentioned in documents. Apart from the support staff, who will be affected by these changes, there were also the Head, representatives from Unison and GMB Unions and several other managers in attendance. The meeting began as usual with waffle - people talking, people listening and nothing much of any use being said. Suddenly a very smart around thirtyish woman(The GMB representative) began to speak and I was enraptured. She spoke with such eloquence, dignity and unshakeable confidence that she was a delight to hear. She dissected each part of the 'consultation' document pointing out deficiencies, stupidity and even a couple of items which could be deemed illegal. The mood of the meeting lifted and all of a sudden people who were too timid or afraid of losing their jobs began to ask the Head questions, which they really wanted to ask.

The Head began to squirm, he tried to keep his cool, he tried to backtrack and in the end he had to admit that perhaps the wording of the documents had been misleading and that he would make himself available to speak to anyone personally and specifically regarding any change to their contract of employment.

I love this woman - not in any sexual way you understand - but in a hero worship way. I am off to join the union now - I should have done this ages ago, but apathy has slowly been taking me over and listening to this woman has made me realise that if you really want something you have to get off your backside and do it.

So here I go.....

Jo xx

NEW YEAR, LIFE BEGINS AND ENDS

2011-01-10T18:35:00.007Z

Hello Everyone,

I am trying really hard to work up the enthusiasm to continue or to take up again with all my creative stuff. It feels like I have been on a long winter sleep and I am finding it really difficult to wake up properly. Yesterday was the first really sunny day we have had since quite a while and when I went out in my car yesterday I felt like a mole emerging from a hole - the sun was blinding, so blinding that I had to put on my heavy duty sunglasses. It was too bright, I wanted to go back into my warm, safe, dark hole and not come out again. But I stayed out and admired the blue sky and the suddenly vivid colours and rejoiced in the wonder of nature.....no I haven't gone mad, I have just discovered how much I miss the sunshine - not the heat-just the light.

After a visit to my doctor a few months ago for a routine check-up I was told that I am very low in vitamin D and low in calcium, this is the main cause of rickets a disease which I thought was nigh on eradicated in the western world. It seems not - apparently this deficiency is on the increase especially with children. The main cause of this is the amount of time we western humans spend indoors in front of the TV, PC or games console or in my case spend in my office at work and then inside at the weekends catching up on housework. So I think my belated New Year's resolution should be to get as much sunlight as possible.

On a sadder note a member of my ex-husband's family has just died, it was his uncle. He had been ill for quite a long time since an aneurysm in the brain had struck him down at the age of 47 - he died last friday at the age of 62. His death was so sad because he had quite a large family and had been in a care home since he became ill, he had three sisters and two brothers, but only his youngest sister ever went to visit him. Her husband, two daughters and herself visited him at least once a week, brought him to their home for dinners and family celebrations, made sure he was kept informed of births, marriages and yes even deaths. And what is her reward for all those years of selflessness - the bitterness and scorn of her brothers and sisters who are so wracked with guilt that the only way they can cope with their selfishness is by attacking the very person who made their brother's last few years a little bit happier. I don't understand their behaviour and wish that they could leave their guilt behind enough to thank their little sister for all she has done for her family.

I didn't really want to finish on a down note but I just want to say Rest In Peace Connie - where ever you are I pray you have a lot of good company.

Love Jo xx

TURKEY WITH ALL THE TRIMMINGS

2010-12-26T08:49:00.006Z

Phew Christmas day is over and what a day it was. Turkey with all the trimmings at my sister's house in Palmers Green. I arrived around 2pm with the boyfriend to the house where my frazzled sister greeted us with the statement that lunch was running late! No problem - since I wasn't cooking, I wasn't stressed.

The table looked stunning, so festive with the silverware, crackers and the sauces laid out in crystal glass like jewels - Cranberry sauce, Apple sauce and of course Mint sauce. All those sauces I hear you ask, why so many? Well have a bit of patience and I will get around to telling you what proceeded to appear from the magic kitchen.

On arrival to the house, hugs, kisses and exchange of greetings were followed by a nice refreshing glass of buck's fizz. Crisps and nibbles followed, good conversation with my niece and nephew and then more family arrives ready to relieve my sister of a mountain of food.

Starter of filo pastry prawns with a sweet chilli dip was enthusiastically welcomed. This was quickly followed by.... wait for it.... Turkey, Pork, Lamb (hence the three sauces), pigs in blankets (or sausages wrapped in bacon), various types of stuffing including my favourite chestnut stuffing. Then came...roast potatoes, roast parsnips, brussel sprouts, carrots, swede, peas, yorkshire puddings (that's a bit weird - no in my family we eat these with everything!) and finally the gravy.

Every year I tell myself I will not over eat and every year I end up fit to burst. This year is no different from any other and this morning I am paying for not sticking to my decision. After absolutely obliterating everything on my plate, include second helpings of my favourite items (parsnips, yorkshire puddings and potatoes) I sat stroking my expanding waistline and telling myself what an idiot I had been (again)! Half an hour later I still managed to pack away a portion of Christmas pudding with cream (argh!!!)

Christmas crackers were pulled, hats put on heads, jokes read out and enough food consumed to feed a small army. A good time was had by all.

Well if I get peckish, there is always the half leg of lamb and leftover potatoes and parsnips my sister gave me - I could fry them up with some onion and garlic and make a nice concoction.........

Oh gosh here I go again.

Happy Christmas and happy eating to you all.

Jo xx

A FESTIVE RETURN TO LIFE

2010-12-23T14:15:00.009Z

I am tentatively dipping my big toe back into the world of blogging. After an absence of approximately two years, brought on by a major creative block - caused by a combination of a middle age crisis, a couple of illnesses in the family and some kind of low level depression (self-pity) - I now feel able to at least put my fingers to the keyboard and try to write something if only "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!".

As previous followers of my blog know, my major passion in life apart from my children and family is food. At present it is becoming a bit of an obessesion and all I seem to think of is what I can eat next.

My passion for food has recently been fuelled by the completion of a brand new kitchen, complete with a large five ring cooker, which has multiple ovens, acres of stainless steel and gas rings that actually work! I also am the proud owner of an all singing all dancing american style fridge freezer. This has so much room to put food into it that I am obliged to keep shopping every time a space becomes apparent. This is costing me a fortune! Luckily my sons who are still living at home with me are now able to contribute financially, both of them having decently paid work. So the monetary pressure is somewhat relieved.

I visited Waitrose in Brent Cross this morning to stock up on a few goodies. I had a £20.00 gift voucher to spend - gift from a friend for my birthday. I bought two boxes of cocoa dusted truffles (scrummy!), some smoked salmon pate, Cadbury's chocolate fingers, a moussaka for two (but in my case for one), some turkish delight for the boyfriend (yes he is still around) and some coronation chicken sandwich filler (reduced from £1.20 to 49p!). This lot probably won't last long, but I am certainly going to enjoy at least some of it today.

Happy eating, happy Christmas and Happy New Year.

Only eat what makes you happy.

Jo xx

TIME FOR A RETURN TO LIFE - AND ALL IT ENTAILS

2008-08-15T06:44:00.004+01:00

I really don’t know where to begin. I have just read my last entry and realise how much I was involved with – no wonder I have been ill. I suffered a severe bout of dizziness and nausea, which kept me off work for two and a half weeks; I have never been off sick for more than a day or two in five and a half years!! On top of the dizziness I was told that my blood pressure was sky high and was promptly given medication (Ramipril) to help reduce it. Now, five months down the line, the BP has been reduced and I have dropped a lot of the activities I was formerly involved in – I am feeling more relaxed and thank heavens the twitchy eye thing has stopped.

At present I am enjoying time off for the school holidays. I have embarked on some DIY work around the house, which I am rubbish at. I am in the process of decorating my tiny toilet, tiling, painting and installing some tongue and groove panelling to the walls – it is a lot harder than I thought and I really think I don’t have what it takes to make a good job of it – well I haven’t given up yet.

The weather in London is very depressing – it is amazing to think that we are in mid-August and it has been so wet and dark for at least the last couple of weeks. Today at least seems to have started well (fingers crossed). My eldest son has been trying to dig out an area of the garden to create a patio and bbq area – but work has ground to a halt with all this precipitation. Perhaps today he can get some work done – it has to be finished by the 6th September as it is my younger son’s birthday – he will be 21!! He is planning to have a bbq for all the family and his friends and is intending to re-furbish the old shed at the back of the garden and make it into a bar. We are off to buy the wood and other bits and pieces today.

On other news – it is my Mum and Dad’s Golden Wedding Anniversary in January – 50 years of wedded bliss!! My siblings and I are planning a big do for them and inviting all our family from Spain and the North of England and we really are a big family – at least 100!! The main problem we have encountered is trying to find a hall with a kitchen big enough and cheap enough for us to rent – the other day I was quoted £964 for the rental of a hall for only 7 hours!! It’s incredible how expensive everything is and it’s not getting any cheaper. I am still looking; so if anyone out there knows of a decent hall for hire in the Kenton area of London, please let me know.

My poor Mummy has been incredibly depressed lately – I think it is mainly the bad weather that is causing it – of course the weather is affecting her ability to go to her beloved CAR BOOT SALES, which are like a relaxation therapy for her and she seems to be on the point of crying every moment – this is not common for my Mum so I have offered to take her to an Antique Fair that she likes to sell at once a month in the hope this might lift her spirits. It doesn’t help that she spends all day every day with my Dad and most of that time is spent running him up to the hospital for his numerous appointments with: Cardiology, Renal and Ophthalmic consultants.

I have managed to read a good few more books – especially by one of my favourite authors, Anne McCaffrey. I have read the three of ‘Acorna’s Children’ series: First Warning, Second Wave and Third Watch, also by the same author three books from the Petaybee series ‘The twins of Petaybee’: Changelings, Maelstrom and Deluge. All thoroughly enjoyable and quite easy reads for me – I can’t wait for the next Dragons of Pern book, which her son Todd McCaffrey has now taken on.

I am at present reading a book by Paul Torday ‘The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce’ about a thirtyish year old man who inherits a wine cellar and proceeds to drink himself to death all the while deluding himself that he does not have a drink problem (actually I don’t know if he dies – I haven’t got very far into the book) although the subject matter is grim it is still quite a humorous book and it certainly teaches you a lot about wine.

I am not sure when I will be back here again, so don’t hold your breath! Heh heh!

Jo xx

LIFE GOES ON AROUND US

2008-03-13T18:36:00.014Z

Life has been rather frantic of late. As usual I have overstretched myself. I am trying to juggle a full-time job, with keeping 'The Boyfriend', happy, amused, satisfied, with getting involved with my school's PTA (Parent Teacher Association), with embarking on a self enrichment program, which involves mentoring three students, doing Tai-chi classes twice a week and attending creative solutions for first time managers courses! Needless to say I am struggling - I am suffering with indigestion, heartburn and my right eye hasn't stopped twitching for several weeks now. All in all I am not bad!

I have still managed to read quite a bit (twitchy eye and all) and have got through a William Nicholson trilogy for children called 'The Windsinger Trilogy'. The books were a nice easy read and I managed to get through them over three nights. I have now read the first book in the 'Seeker' trilogy, but since the other two books are not available in our library I will have to wait to finish this set. Other recent reads have been 'Mr Pip' by Lloyd Jones, about a village on a Pacific island off the coast of Australia, where the only white man on the island takes it upon himself to educate the children using the great, Mr Dickens' book 'Great Expectations' as a learning tool. It is a beautiful and sometimes shocking book, both poetic and brutal, but worth a read. Last night I finished 'The Book Thief' by Markus Zusak. Another beautifully poetic book, narrated by Death! It tells the story of a young german girl's life in the Second world war, her fears, her dreams, her life, her death - a wonderful book.

This Saturday the school I work at will be holding an Indoor Spring Fair and Table top sale (indoor Car boot to those in the know). This is the involvement I mentioned with the PTA, unfortunately, there are only two parents and two (and a half) teachers involved in this PTA, well I am not really a teacher but they don't seem to be too bothered about that. I think they are happy that anyone else wants to help. I think it is shocking that in a school with 2000+ students and 280 staff only four people want to help out and when it comes to getting donations of gifts and prizes from people forget it! The management ie: headteachers and deputies are yet to put their hands in their pockets and contribute so much as a bar of chocolate - hmmm, I
wonder what they spend their £60 - £100,000 salaries on??

I haven't mentioned family events for a while - we haven't had too many get togethers recently - we are all such busy people!
My Dad had his birthday in February, he was 77 - we have been so lucky to have him for three years more than we thought we would, especially after the terrible time he had a few years ago on life-support and several literally heart stopping days. He
is not a well man, but at least he is happy with his family around him, he is not in pain and is looking forward to the warmer days, when he can go out into the garden and tend his beloved tomato plants.

My Mum is going to be 70 this year and we are planning to go out 'en masse' probably to a local eaterie - not too expensive - as mum hates spending too much on going out! As long as the place we go too is not too fussy about noise and caters for children with big appetites we will all be happy.

My boys are doing well in their lives, still looking after their old (well middle-aged) mum. Both of them are working, my younger son just having started full-time work at the local Tesco as a team leader (cashier supervisor). It's all about experiencing life in its many rich and varied forms. My younger son informed me the other night, that he is certainly learning the art of patience. This is mainly due the amount of complaining customers he is having to deal with - I am so proud of him! My baby is all growed
up!!

Well checking out now (get it?) Heh heh!

Jo xx

LIFE UPDATE

2007-12-21T23:25:00.000Z

I don’t know why I haven’t written for ages, specifically I couldn’t tell you. A general feeling of malaise has descended upon me and my creative juices have evaporated.

Ok, so today I felt a little inspired to put fingers to keyboard and write something, but now I have started, where should I go?

I don’t really browse the blogs as much as I used to, but still stop in now and again to see what my family has been up to. LondonCabby, So this is Paradise and Agnostic Joe, have all tapered off with their postings - now and again a little gem appears to entertain me. Paradise Driver is always dependable and incredibly prolific with his postings and beautiful photographs of Maui – I would like to meet him some day – Lord knows how he finds the inspiration every day!

I have had a quick look at New York Cabby’s blog and it seems, since she has been involved with her book she has become somewhat obsessed with it and has forgotten that which made her popular in the first place. The quirky eccentricities of the native New Yorkers made for great reading, it kept people from around the world amused and gave us all a little insight into another type of life – good or bad – didn’t come in to it. All Melissa Plaut’s postings since she received the book offer have been pale imitations of her once meaty stories. Just looking at the number of comments she now receives to the hundreds she received in her heyday an indication of her waning popularity ’15 minutes of fame’, well and truly gone.

I have been trying to read more lately and have managed in the past two months to read a variety of decent and half-decent books.

Antibodies by David J. Skal

Heavy Time by C.J.Cherryh

Wideacre by Philippa Gregory

The Almond Picker by Simonetta Agnello Hornby

Here There Be Dragons by James A. Owen

Angel Blood by John Singleton

Stranger in a Strange Land (re-read) by Robert Heinlein

Lord of the Rings (re-reading) by J.R.R.Tolkien

Work has been incredibly stressful, with one colleague who has been taking advantage of my good nature – coming in late, off sick all the time and has managed to upset most of the other girls she works with at one point or another – she has a rather abrasive manner and constantly bosses people around, including me!!

Another one of my staff has been asked to resign – she had only worked with us for 3 weeks. She is very young, very sweet, but unfortunately a little crazy! She has tried to commit suicide twice, during her three weeks with us, so has in fact only worked two weeks, with the rest of the time off in hospital or at home getting counselling. The sad thing is that she was a good little worker and the kids really liked her, so I feel a bit bad that she was semi-forced to resign by the human resources people – I hope she will be OK.

I finally finished work yesterday for the holidays – I will be back at work on the 4th January 2008.

Family events are coming up, so it’s bound to be a busy time for all the Mums out there, cooking, cleaning, buying/wrapping presents and sneaking into bedrooms in the dead of night to leave an overstuffed Christmas stocking by the bed. I still give both of my sons a Christmas stocking – they are 25 and 20 respectively, but I don’t leave them by the bed, I hang them on their bedroom door handles – even so I still seem to be going to bed at around two in the morning. I have tried to stop this tradition, but they both begged me to keep it up – big babies!

Just in case I don’t get back to blog world before Christmas and New Year, I wish you all a happy time with whatever you are going to be doing - the photo above is my greetings card to you all.

Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año Nuevo.

Jo xx

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

2007-09-30T12:00:00.000+01:00

Okay, so it’s another sunny Sunday morning – just how I like my days, a fresh touch in the air and Mother Nature painting the trees in beautiful shades of Autumn. It is a split between autumn and spring as to which season is my favourite. Spring is a re-birth of life, new plants and fresh bold primary colours – sparkling Snowdrops, dazzling Daffodils and twinkling Tulips. Autumn is a quiet repose, reds, browns, russets, bronzes and golds, a rich time before the little death that is Winter.

Those pesky squirrels are digging up the bulbs I have planted and are burying them around my garden or in other pots – no wonder things keep growing where I haven’t planted them, well sometimes I get nice surprises, perhaps a peach tree starts growing where I had planted a tulip or a miniature oak tree pushes its way out of one of my hanging baskets – I could have sworn I planted some crocus bulbs there??

The local foxes have started preparing themselves for the oncoming mating season, ripe musky smells from scent marking males are all over my garden, why the vixens find this smell attractive I will never know. The foxes are looking particularly fine at the moment, sleek and fat with beautiful shiny russet coats, now if I was a vixen that would probably be more of a turn on – heh heh!! In the next couple of weeks I am sure to be woken up by the blood curdling screams of foxes in the throes of passion – lucky foxes!!

I am off now to make myself and my sons a late breakfast or brunch as we brits like to call it – all the mundane things that need doing and should be done are calling to me, but I am finding myself drawn outside again.

One more look before it all fades away….

John Keats - To Autumn

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, -
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

This is one of my all time favourite poems – enjoy.

Until the next time my friends.

Jo xx

Life in the life lane

2007-09-22T12:46:00.000+01:00

Hello - where am I – Oh it’s Blog World!!!!

I haven’t been here in such a long time, so much and nothing has happened I don’t really know where to start.

My holiday was a bit of a washout for several reasons:

I hate where my parent’s flat is, it’s noisy, smelly, hot and dusty and if you don’t have a car, walking in 40 degrees of heat is no laughing matter.

The nearest beach is 25 minutes walk away – in 40 degrees heat.

The flat – in 40 degrees heat – has no air conditioning!!

My poor niece was ill for most of the holiday and was unable for most of the time to leave the flat or even eat anything and the temperature (40 degrees) for her was unbearable.

Did I mention the heat – heh heh!!

Most of the rest of the holidays was spent DIYing, my eldest son has built himself a wardrobe, it was his first attempt at carpentry and he has built a solid fitted wardrobe in his room – the doors don’t fit too well and are slightly different sizes, he has yet to put on the handles and the whole thing still needs painting, but for a first attempt, I think it is marvellous!!

We got a new garage door, new guttering, new slabs for under the little tool shed, cleared out: the garage, behind the garage, the big garden shed and loads from the attic into a giant skip.

The skip had amazing magical properties as whenever a metallic item was placed into it, the following morning it had disappeared – washing machines, garden rollers, old vacuum cleaners, metal chairs and assorted chains and rusty tools all vanished mysteriously – well actually they were taken away by rag and bone men (scrap merchants), who clambered all over the container looking for anything they might be able to salvage for scrap. This was actually a bonus for us as we were able to get rid of far more rubbish due to the self-emptying properties of this device.

Back to work at the beginning of September and the perennial problem of trying to find a new staff member – I am very fussy and know exactly what I am looking for, so interviewing has been quite a depressing affair, I have now interviewed around 12 people for the post of Librarian/Open learning officer and fussiness aside none of them have been suitable.
They either have no experience working with children, they cannot speak English, they cannot understand English, they do not read books or know anything about books, they know nothing about computers – the list goes on. How do they expect to be able to cope with a job where children are constantly asking, demanding, requesting all sorts of help?? I do find sometimes, that we are holding X factor auditions and have to stop myself laughing at the answers some people give to questions at interviews.

For the last 10 days I have been spending a lot of time with my Dad. My mother has gone away for a well deserved holiday with my brother London Cabby, so the rest of the family: Sister from Palmers Green, Sister from Harrow and Wealdstone and Brother Agnostic Joe, including assorted children and partners have all taken turns in spending as much time as possible with him. Since my Father was literally on death’s door, two years ago, he has been on a huge number of medications, having all kinds of treatments and numerous hospital appointments. For all these reasons we thought that we would draw up a Rota of times when we could all help out – it all worked out really well although it was tiring for all concerned trying to fit in this extra responsibility with out normal busy lives. My Dad loved being fussed over and was delighted with all the attention, he even showed the District Nurse the rota, which had been laid out in chart form by my sister in Harrow & Wealdstone. When my Mum returned from her holiday my Dad also showed it to her and she became quite emotional. I am just glad that my parents have such a big family, because looking after anyone is a huge responsibility and we only did it for a short time, some people have to look after their loved ones for years.

To all of you out there, you unsung heroes, carers of family or friends, my love and admiration goes out to you all.

Best wishes and Big hugs to you all.

Jo xx

WASH DAYS AND I'M OFF TO SUNNY SPAIN

2007-07-28T09:08:00.000+01:00

I’m looking forward to putting my feet up next week – I’m off to incredibly hot and sunny Spain, I’m told the temperature is hitting 40 degrees and that is very hot!

I will be going just for one week to Torrevieja near Alicante; my parents have a flat there, which they haven’t been able to go to since my Dad was seriously ill two years ago. He is not allowed to fly anymore as he has a heart condition and many other ailments – despite all these afflictions he still manages to tend to his beloved: tomatoes, peppers and aubergines and is expecting a good crop this year, as long as we get some decent sun here in London (fat chance of that!) I will be travelling with one of my many nieces – I have nine nieces and five nephews – the niece I will be travelling with is the daughter of my sister from Palmers Green. She has been taking a foundation course in Art and will be starting a BA in Photography in September, so I thought it would be nice for us to have something different to photograph, apart from rainy skies. I really enjoy photography too, so am looking forward to getting some decent shots to post on my deviantart webpage, maybe something other than flowers perhaps?? Hee hee!

I finally have a new washing machine – woo hoo!! My lovely brother London Cabby took me to Comet in Colindale where I chose the machine, paid for it, my brother and son loaded into the cab, unloaded it (very heavy) and then my wonderful brother plumbed it in for me. I have already washed 10 loads of washing, it’s amazing how much mounts up when you don’t have a machine for a couple of weeks, it also makes you realise just how many clothes you have – too many really. My Mum used to say when we were children, well she still says it now and again “When I was a girl I had a dress, which I wore everyday and one special one for Sunday” and ‘neecas’ knickers or panties “ We only had quita y pon” one on one off. I suppose it makes sense really, I must have about one hundred pairs of knickers, most of which don’t fit or are uncomfortable – no wonder I have to do so much washing – we really are quite a wasteful society now.

Well I’m off to find some more washing now.

Laters

Jo xx

RAIN, WASHING MACHINES AND HARRY POTTER

2007-07-23T08:24:00.000+01:00

Rain rain go away, come again another day.

I have water pouring through my living room ceiling, right where the TV should be - the TV is on a small table in front of where its normal position should be. In its place there is a bucket and a pile of towels - more money to be spent! I think it's coming in through the guttering, which cannot cope with the volume of rain and is finding a pathway through my bedroom window and down to the living room - I have wallpaper hanging in shreds in my bedroom - even more money to be spent!!! Oh well - at least the house is still standing.

I'm not too happy with Currys(Store), where I purchased a washing machine two weeks ago to replace my 12 year old washing machine. After two changes of delivery dates and being told that the machine, which was supposed to be in the warehouse was sold - I agreed to take the machine that was displayed on the shop floor, as long as it was in perfect condition! When the perfect machine arrived at my home, it had several dents a loose front panel and the top didn't have one area that wasn't covered in scratches. Infact it looked older than my machine!! I told the delivery guys to take it away - they emphatically agreed with my decision (nice guys) - and loaded it back into their van. I have now asked for and received a full refund of my money - I still have no washing machine - so the launderette is beckoning.

Finally I have read the latest Harry Potter book - The Deathly Hallows. For some reason I kept falling asleep whilst I was reading it(sleeping sickness??), so I had to take a little nap for a couple of hours before I could continue and finish it - it has tied up loads of loose ends, but possibly still left a lot of unanswered questions. It is a very dark book - a lot of death and destruction also very moralistic - I won't say anymore, I don't want to spoil it for any Potter fans out there! It's a good read!!

Wingardium leviosa (tee hee)

Jo xx

QUICK HELLO

2007-07-17T12:35:00.000+01:00

Just a quick hello, to say that I am still alive and kicking, but exceedingly busy with work stuff. The last few weeks have been hectic here in the school, we have had Excel week, which is a week of activities, trips out, sports days and team building competitions. Suffice to say everyone was knackered by the end of the week - only one more week to go and then a six week break from early starts and loud children.

As usual I have still be short staffed, but hopefully this should be resolved by the end of this week, I am interviewing four candidates on Thursday - none of them are particularly inspiring on paper, but who knows perhaps in person they are the answer to my problems. We didn't get an awful lot of applicants as the wages are rubbish and the hours are not to good either. One of the applicants is a prison officer - perhaps this might scare some of the students into behaving - heh heh!

This last week of term is a string of get togethers, bbq, pub outings and many good byes to leaving staff and then the whole thing starts again in September. Ah well - it's a living.

Hopefully I should get a bit more time to post stuff over the holidays.

I DO NOT LIKE GREEN EGGS AND HAM!!

2007-05-27T13:23:00.000+01:00

Another rainy Sunday here in London – what’s new!!

I am on my half term break this week and don’t really have a whole lot planned. Tomorrow ‘The boyfriend’ has booked me for the day (private joke) and we are supposed to be going out somewhere, anywhere – as opposed to sitting in his dark boring house, watching dark boring films. Since it will probably be raining, we will possibly end up sitting in a dark cinema somewhere – hey ho!! A nice meal after the cinema should keep me happy though, this is one of the ways to keep me happy as regular readers of this blog will know – food is my drug – heh, heh!! I won’t mention the other thing that keeps me happy, this is local blog for local people (another private joke).

The only other plan I have this week is Lunch with the girls from work at the pub ‘ The Case is Altered’ in Old Redding near Harrow on the Hill. They have a huge garden and play area for kids – the food is a little expensive, but the last time I went with some friends, we received exceptional service from one of the barmen/waiters there. It may possibly have had something to do with the fact that one of my friends was wearing a Celtic football top and the barman was a huge fan. I dread to think what the service would have been like if he had been wearing a Rangers top (it’s a Glasgow thing). I wonder if I should borrow my friend’s top for our next visit – just in case?

Wednesday I have to visit the Doctor for an update on my: Blood pressure, Thyroxin Levels and Cholesterol – I was supposed to try and lose some weight, but unfortunately I lost the argument with my willpower and have managed to pile on the pounds again – not good at my age.

On rainy days like this my thoughts turn to food – what – it’s called comfort eating!!

Today I will be making lunch a little later as we like to have a lie-in on a Sunday morning. On the menu later today we have:

Pork Loin Steaks in a cheesy pepper sauce
Garlic Sautéed Jersey Royal Potatoes
Asparagus and Tender Sprouting Broccoli

Mmm – delicious – I love my food.

Got to go, mouth is watering, have to eat something!!

Jo xx

THIS NEW BLOGGER IS A BIT PANTS!!

2007-05-20T11:32:00.001+01:00

This new blogger is a bit pants (rubbish) – half of my banner is missing – what the hell happened to the profile thingy – it doesn’t connect you to like minded people anymore i.e. People who have the same favourite film or book??

Whassup with that??

I DON’T LIKE IT MUMMY!!

On other news I have read four books this week!! Ok, ok they are only children’s books about 200 pages each, but I thought I should be reading a variety of genre instead of my usual sci fi/fantasy stuff, which is the stuff I really love.

Three of the books I have read are short listed for something called the CIILP Carnegie Awards (some librarian thing). They are all very good and very readable and I would recommend these for 14+ age group as they deal with some delicate/intimate issues and would appeal equally to boys and girls.

My Swordhand is Singing by Marcus Sedgewick - is a type of fantasy, but also deals with a boy’s relationship with his Father.

Beast by Ally Kennan - deals with a young lad on the verge of adulthood, he has been in and out of foster care most of his life and has a hugely dysfunctional family. His Father buys him a pet at some point – the pet takes over the boy’s life. This is another good one for relationships and children’s strength of character.

A Swift Pure Cry by Siobhan Dowd – based in a small village/town in Ireland, this is a story of a young girl’s passage into adulthood. It also illustrates the small-minded mentality of people and how prejudice and gossip can ruin people’s lives. This is a beautiful tale, which again shows children’s strengths and weaknesses and shows us how mistakes can radically change lives.

The last book - Bloodtide by Melvin Burgess (not a Carnegie finalist) – is a story based on the Icelandic Volsunga Sagas and is quite a shocking read for children – but no more shocking than the computer games, which most children of a much younger age group play. Violence, War, Sex and Relationships, with believable characters and mutants, boys should definitely enjoy this – maybe not the icky sex bits – but the strategies and the way the story is told from the viewpoint of different characters. I’m a girl/woman and I really enjoyed it!!

On the home front all is calm and loving again in the household – just how I like it.

I’m looking forward to my half-term holiday next week and have some DIY planned for part of the week – well planned, but I probably will only get around to maybe one of those things, but hey ho it’s my life!!

Ta ra
Jo x

THANKS A BUNCH!!

2007-05-15T20:38:00.000+01:00

Sometimes in your life you suddenly think ‘Thanks a bunch’!!

My ‘Thanks a bunch’ moment came yesterday evening around 9pm.

After a very stressful day at work – staff shortages yet again! I had people whining on about their problems at home, with their families (The Boyfriend phoned), their children, their partners – listening to complaints about aching backs, fevers, headaches and other assorted ailments - I arrived home and all I wanted was to have a quiet night, not burden my sons with my work problems and generally just chill. Everything was fine until 9pm when a friend of mine phoned, hoping to get some temp work whilst he is finishing his studies at University. I answered the phone, and yes I admit I do have a rather loud telephone voice, I proceeded to explain to him the politics involved in trying to secure him a position, the nepotism and near corruption in the educational system and that I would try my very best to get a positive result. All the time I was trying to have this conversation, both of my sons were blah, blah, blahing and generally thinking they were being hilarious (not) and I was getting more and more angry. They normally are good at spotting my anger rising, but because I was still talking, their hilarity was increasing exponentially – never a good thing when your mother is trying to have a serious conversation with a potential work colleague. Two minutes, that’s all I was on the phone for, two minutes out of their precious television watching time!! I came off the phone and they both launched into me with, ‘Why do have to talk so loud?’ ‘ We don’t want to hear about your work problems’ and ‘we can’t even hear what they are saying on the TV’.

My anger and frustration shows in two ways with my children –

1. I go very quiet
2. My eyes start to burn as the tears threaten to escape

My way of dealing with this is to sit there for about 5 minutes with an inane death mask grin on my face and then slowly remove myself from the site of frustration by slowly walking out of the room. I slowly walk up the stairs to my bedroom, go into my bedroom, slam the bedroom door and then throw myself on the bed and have a good cry - I was so tired, that I think I went to sleep within twenty minutes!

My children do not normally upset me in this way, but sometimes their insensitivity astounds me. I spend hours listening to my eldest telling me about his worries at work, about life and general moaning about most things on TV. My other son doesn’t really moan, except maybe about his brother sometimes, but then I do have to listen to all the moans and groans about football or him groaning because he has been killed on his on-line computer game. I spend two minutes talking about my stuff and I get pounced upon – there’s gratitude for you!!

Well just as well I have cyberspace to moan into – you do have a choice, you either read this or you don’t.

Thanks a bunch!!

Jo x

I AM A MASOCHIST!!

2007-05-06T21:09:00.000+01:00

OMG – Not more birthdays!! April and May were busy times in our family – lots of procreating going on. This month it’s my sister-in-law, my elder son John (25 today) my sister Angie (my lips are sealed about her age) also her birthday today – Happy Birthday Angie and Johnny. It’s my nephew Danny’s Birthday on the 12th and my brother Joe’s Birthday on the 16th, plus a couple of work colleagues too!!

I bought my son an Ipod nano - 8 gigs of memory – this is really good, so I am told and he seemed to like it – so I did something right for once. I think he has inherited his fussy ways from me and is quite specific about what he likes and dislikes – as a result gift giving and receiving can be quite a hit and miss affair. Obviously the one exception for me is ‘The boyfriend’ who just buys mad gifts for the hell of it – I have mentioned some of the more eccentric offerings in previous posts – just to refresh your memory I thought I would show you the photo of the cow car, again.

Yesterday evening I went to an 18th Birthday party with ‘The Boyfriend’. The party was for the daughter of a childhood friend of his, who I also knew from my teen years. On arriving at the party, which was being held at the ‘Old Crown’ pub in Highgate – I told my boyfriend to wait a while as I didn’t fancy being the only oldie in a room full of teenies. I shouldn’t have worried really as most of the people in the party were our age (40ish) and most of the music was from the late 70’s early 80’s – Reggae, Soul, Ska and other similar sounds. What really surprised me was that the teenagers were all sitting at the tables, sedately sipping their drinks, whilst their parents were strutting their funky stuff on the dance floor, to the music of Bob Marley, Marvin Gaye and Chaka Khan amongst others. There were a lot of embarrassed young faces as they watched their parents wriggling and writhing on the dance floor – parents can really be so embarrassing!! Heh, heh!!

Today I have been nursing a little hangover, little because I only had four drinks – but I really am not used to drinking and the combination of the Dry Martinis and the smoky bar, contributed hugely to my heavy head and leaden stomach today. I have absolutely no sympathy for myself – it is completely self-inflicted. When I do get these hangovers I find that the only way I can make myself feel better is to eat a lot, so today I have had a marathon eat in.

I started the day with a cooked breakfast kindly made by ‘The Boyfriend’

Eggs, Bacon, Black Pudding and Fried Bread plus Two cups of Tea

I got home and had a cup of coffee plus two toast with butter and honey

My sister-in-law came to visit and brought:

Breaded garlic mushrooms, Garlic and Onion Dip, Houmous, Pitta Bread and Fresh Cream Chocolate Choux Pastries plus another cup of coffee.

I have just finished my evening meal of Pasta in a tomato sauce with a sizeable Sirloin Steak.

Tomorrow I am going to cry about how much weight I am putting on - I have absolutely no sympathy for myself – it is completely self-inflicted.
Yours with a full stomach and a heavy head.

Jo xx

Thanks for waking me up Wil!!

2007-05-02T10:41:00.000+01:00

Ok, ok!! I have finally been made to feel guilty – Wil Kyle from Paradise driver has been asking if something is wrong - coincidentally, my brother ‘London Cabby’ and my Sister ‘So this is Paradise’, hadn’t written anything for ages – come to think of it my other brother ‘The Reluctant Agnostic’ hasn’t written for a while either. It must be something to do with being such a close family, we all seem to shut down at the same time and go into another mode. Anyhow, no there is nothing wrong with any of us, we are just all extremely busy people, Family, Work and extra-curricular activities, take up a lot of our time.

My problem of late has been that I have started several projects and then moved on to something else, it seems like I am never finishing anything. I am pleased to report that I have definitely finished some of the unfinished stuff (?) and it really does give me a sense of satisfaction.

Firstly the re-mortgage on the house finally came through, three months after starting the process! The paperless application process has left me with a file of paperwork at least 2 inches (approx.5cms) high – huh, so this is a paperless application – I dread to think how much paperwork the paper application would generate.

Secondly and this is due to Firstly above – I have been able to consolidate (pay off) all my loans, credit card and other sundry debts, which I have acquired over the past 4 years – this has left me with one manageable payment and a huge burden of guilt lifted from my shoulders. I can now hold my head up high and say I don’t owe anyone anything – well the mortgage company doesn’t count!! Does it – heh, heh!!

Thirdly, Finally and also because of Firstly, I have been able to do some jobs around the house, which really needed doing: Unblocking drains (again), buying a small garden shed to keep the lawn mower and garden furniture in, buying a new drill, so that I can finally get around to doing all those odd jobs around the house that require a power drill and many other small repairs that everyone’s home needs doing from time to time.

On a personal note – I am quite content at the moment. Work is going well and I am finally feeling like I am the boss (not in a bad bossy way), things are progressing and the libraries are becoming quite some showpieces, we regularly get visitors from other schools and other countries, who are told how wonderful our libraries are – I must be doing something right. I am not reading too much at the moment, I have about five books on the go, some which I started reading before Christmas. I have yet to finish: My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk, The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall, Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder, Four past Midnight (Short Stories) by Stephen King, The Book of Dave by Will Self.

I did manage to finish Blood Song by Melvyn Burgess, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It is a children’s book, for older children. It is a fantasy, but it also deals with a tricky subject – sexual awakenings. It is dealt with in a sensitive, non-judgemental way and I think that adults should read it too – they might learn something from it!!

Well I am off to a meeting of The Brent Librarians – on my day off – I must love this job!!

Hopefully I won’t leave such a big gap with my postings this time and thank you Wil for caring.

Until the next time.

Jo xx

OFF WITH OLD, ON WITH THE NEW

2007-04-05T08:42:00.000+01:00

We British love to talk about the weather and can you blame us?? We seem to have the most changeable weather in the world – Monday was so cold, you could have frozen the balls (testicles) of a brass Monkey (It’s an old English saying)!! Today on the weather report, I am told; we will be expecting temperatures of around 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit)!! I love British weather it keeps you on your toes – shall I put my winter jumpers away, is it warm enough for a pair of flip-flops and shorts?? I know one thing for certain, it’s not keeping me on my toes enough – strangely in the last two months I have managed to put on half a stone in weight (7lbs or 3.17kilos) and a couple of inches on my waistline – this is not good – Summer is fast approaching and most of my clothes from last year are bursting at the seams – let me tell you, it’s not a pretty sight!! Ha, ha!!

I am on Easter holidays (Spring break) at the moment and I really haven’t made the most of my time. My finances are on the up and up – my re-mortgage has finally come through. This means I can finally pay off some of my high interest debts – the credit card being the main one. I have already snapped it in half – this is to be my new financial regime, I will only spend what I know I have in my bank account and I am going to stop buying stuff I know I will never: wear, use, eat, etc.

It’s been and still is a heavy month for Birthdays in my family
– April 1st (April fools day) was my Mum, my boyfriend and my niece Rosie, April 4th, my Father-in-law and another niece Emily, April 18th my nephew Michael, April 23rd (St Georges Day) my nephew Joshua and April 27th my sister Anna. There must have been a whole lot of loving going on in the summer months of those years!! Actually May is not good either – perhaps I should take out another loan or maybe I should stick my credit card back together?

I don’t know if you have noticed, that when the weather is good the Garden centres suddenly become the places to be – and that is exactly where I will be in about an hour from now. I have the Spring bug on me and I will be buying a small shed to keep my lawn mower and garden tools in. I will also be buying my bedding plants for the summer and a few nice big pots and shrubs to put in them. I love the sunshine, it’s just the incentive you need to do a spot of gardening – but I’d better hurry up because it’s probably going to rain again tomorrow.

Goodbye from sunny London.

Jo xx

VIVA ESPAÑA

2007-03-21T13:34:00.000Z

I have been so caught up with stuff lately – at work and at home, so I really haven’t had much time or enthusiasm for writing anything – or reading for that matter.

I am still trying to sort out a re-mortgage on my home. Hopefully, when it all works out I should be free of some of my debts, the more interest heavy ones that is. I didn’t realise how time consuming and stress filled this would be – as for paperless applications – IT’S A LIE!! I have a mountain of paperwork from: The Broker, The Solicitor and The Building Society – it now fills nearly two manila folders with random stuff and I still have no money. Ah well, ‘patience is a virtue’ I have been told.

It was Mother’s Day last Sunday and my boys bought me a DVD of ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ and a lovely card. They were supposed to re-grout my bathroom tiles for me, but a heavy night the previous night, put paid to any manual work and they spent most of the day nursing their hangovers. Boys will be boys eh!!

My sister (Palmers Green) phoned to ask me if I would like to join her and take our Mother out for day on Sunday. She had seen an advert for a ‘Viva España’ Exhibition at Olympia in London - My Mum has been feeling really homesick for Spain recently, she has not been able to spend much time there since my Father became ill and she is really missing catching up on all the local gossip from family and friends. We have tried to convince her that she should go for a couple of weeks, but she is always so guilt ridden (that’s the Catholic part) that she won’t leave my Dad, even though we are all more than capable of keeping an eye on him. – Well anyway, my sister thought it would be really nice to take her there, if only to get her out of the house and spend a bit of time with three of her girls (my other sister Angie lives in Mallorca).

After a marathon journey, which took us five changes of trains (Sunday service on the London Underground is hellish) we arrived at Olympia. The exhibition was primarily for property sales, but in amongst the property sales, were free tastes of: Chilled Spanish Sherry, Soberano Brandy, a selection of wines from all over Spain; Olives, Nuts, Spanish cured ham (jamon Serrano), bread with olive oil and several other tasty titbits. I was feeling quite tipsy after only one taste of the sherry (well it was quite strong!) and my sisters from Palmers Green and Harrow and Wealdstone, were entering into the spirit of the whole event. There was Flamenco dancing and singing and we also stopped for some lunch in the makeshift Square (Plaza Mayor) and had a selection of Tapas . My Mum seemed to enjoy the event, but I am not sure if it only served to make her even more homesick – I must have a little chat with her tomorrow, when I pop in for a visit.

My boys were at it again on Monday night – Tottenham was playing against Chelsea in an FA Cup round (I think?) and they took the loss quite badly and so had to drown their sorrows. My eldest son told me that his brother had fallen asleep leaning against the bar and that he had left him asleep until it was closing time. I also ended up with a street sign in the middle of my living room, which I am not at all happy about. It is being returned this evening – definitely!!

I would just like to say, that my two boys don’t normally go together, out on the ‘lash’ as they call it, but I am quite pleased that they get on so well – it just shows how much they have grown up recently. Sorry did I say grown up – except for the street sign incident they are normally very polite and well behaved boys. Everyone is entitled to go mad a bit now and then.

Well got to go and get ready now – I am off out to meet a friend, we are going to the Cinema to watch ‘Premonition’ with Sandra Bullock. We are then going out for dinner to Chiquitos – better still she is paying!! I have such very good friends!! Ha, ha!!

Adios amigos, hasta pronto.

Jo xx

A BIT OF CULTURE IN MY LIFE

2007-03-07T20:25:00.000Z

The morning did not start too well – I woke up with a crashing headache and a blocked nose – Bloody Hell!! I don’t believe it this blooming cold is haunting me. After spending two or three days relatively happy and sniffle free, full of the joys of Spring, the cold comes back to wreak havoc on me. I did not let it beat me and took a couple of Co-codamols, which within half an hour made me feel a bit more human.

Today, Wednesday, being my day off, I fancied a bit of culture and together with two of my very good friends Steve and Jill, I went trolling around Central London visiting a few places of interest on the way.

I met my friend Steve at Borders bookshop in Oxford Street at 11 am. We decided to take a stroll around the back streets of Soho, where a multitude of interesting little galleries, art shops and other oddities can be found. We went into a really nice ceramics shop (Broadwick Street – I think), with the kind of ceramics I have always wanted to be able to make, huge pots and platters and interesting sculptures – huge price tags though – far too expensive for my modest pocket.

We continued on through: Carnaby Street, Poland Street, Wardour Street, Berwick Street, Dean Street and countless other little mews, which criss cross that whole area. Our objective was to reach the Photographers Gallery in Great Newport Street for 12.30pm, where we would meet our friend Jill.

We arrived at the Gallery with time to spare and had a look around the exhibition of photographs, which is free to anyone. They had several documentary exhibitions, some of which were quite startling, others downright boring (pretentious), but all educational in their own way.

After the gallery visit, we thought it was just about time for Lunch – we found a nice Spanish restaurant called ‘La Tasca’ in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden. They served a huge selection of Tapas (small tastes of food) and at lunchtime the deal is £10 eat as much as you like per person.

I ate: Fried mixed fish, including Calamari, Prawns, Whitebait
Spinach and Advocado Salad (beautifully fresh)
Pork ribs in a wonderful thick gravy
Potatoes cooked with Onions and Peppers

Other things on the menu were: Patatas Bravas (Potatoes in a spicy tomato sauce)
Potato Omelette
Skewered spicy chicken pieces
Mushroom Croquettes
Oven roasted aubergines with tomatoes and cheese

And much, much more!!

After a long and leisurely lunch, we decided to go on to the National Portrait Gallery, near Trafalgar Square. We spent a couple of hours wandering through the rooms and looking at some good, not so good and downright awful pieces – not all art is good art!!

We finished off the day by walking around Covent Garden, which was packed with PSV Eindhoeven fans, waiting for the big match against Arsenal. They all seemed quite well behaved, but then it was before the match – lets see what happens later on this evening. A visit to Neal’s Yard (Vegetarian’s delight) and Cucumber Lane finished off a wonderful day out.

The journey home on the Bakerloo line and Jubilee Line was not so salubrious, but then we can’t have everything in life. I am absolutely shattered, so it’s an early night for me, after I’ve soaked my aching feet.

Happy but tired I bid you adieu.

Jo xx

IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH

2007-02-27T18:20:00.000Z

Well I know I haven’t written again for a while, but this damned flu, cold, chest infection, sinusitis, whatever, is really hanging on to me for dear life. I feel really old at the moment and tired and fed up – I really would like to feel well again instead of feeling this awful lethargy and apathy that seems to have invaded my body. That’s it, aliens have invaded my body and I think they are getting comfortable and setting up home in my 47 year old body, yeuchh!!

It was half term last week and I did manage to go out a couple of times. The first was with my friend Steve, who is an avid photographer. We went out for the afternoon to Kew Gardens, where we managed to take some really nice shots of spring flowers and many other hothouse plants including Orchids and Flamingo Lilies. For a look at some of the photos I took, look at my Deviantart web page.

I did also get out one night to a Salsa class, which even though I had a temperature of 101 degrees, I still seemed to manage to enjoy myself. I paid for it the next few days and confined myself to my bed, with aching joints (salsa & flu) and a hacking cough.

I do intend to go back to work on Thursday; I get withdrawal symptoms if I don’t work – so with or without the flu symptoms I will be soldiering on regardless. The Easter break is coming up in about a month, so I can rest then …

Yours in sickness and in health.

Jo xx

WAR, PEACE AND PANCAKES

2007-02-20T09:20:00.000Z

So today is Pancake Day in Commercial World and Shrove Tuesday in the Christian World – traditionally a day when you get rid of all your good decadent stuff to prepare for the 40 days of Lent and fasting and abstinence – not for me, I eat what I like, when I like – in case you hadn’t noticed.

My children have always enjoyed a pancake or two on this day, I find it a bit of a bind and cheat a little with a pancake mix - A bit of lemon and sugar and Bob’s your uncle!! When I was a child my parents would make a big thing of this day (we are Catholics) - (I am lapsed) - we would have an evening of flipping pancakes and filling them up with whatever we fancied – bananas, nutella, jam, honey – it was a happy time, simple pleasures and all seven of us kids enjoyed it immensely. It was a good bonding time, slightly competitive i.e. who could flip the pancake higher, without hitting the ceiling, who would be the most inventive with their fillings, or recipes as we called them, but always with good humour.

Competitiveness in children is not a bad thing as long as they learn to take the winning and the losing equally well. All too often I hear children jeering and making fun of the losers – or should I say ‘those who have not won’, then again those who have won are terrorised for winning, which takes the pleasure out of the whole event.

Just recently I have been listening/watching my sons playing on their new Xbox 360, it has a microphone attachment so that when they are playing on line the players, from all over the world can speak to each other. Lovely I thought, communication with other people from all walks of life – not really – I have never heard so many insults fly around in my life: My own sons seem to have a thing about Northerners (English) and constantly make references to the way they speak, my elder son told me that there is actually far worse language coming from the majority of other players, regarding Race, Colour, Creed and even Sexual orientation. So not only is there a war raging on the gaming platform (Gears of War) but there is also a war of words happening at the same time – not a good thing. Let’s see what happens with this one, will it actually increase intolerance of differences or will it be a forum for venting your spleen – either way war is war.

On a much lighter note ‘The Boyfriend’ surpassed himself this Valentine’s Day and bought me an assortment of odd items. The one pictured below is of a cow car – it moos!! He also bought me a light-up Duck (Darth) Vader, which lights up in the bath and a squidgy ’I Love You’ pillow, chocolates and a pair of Minnie Mouse briefs – two sizes too small (Is he trying to tell me something?)

Well until the next time ‘MAKE LOVE NOT WAR’

Jo xx

VALENTINE'S DAY - AGAIN!!

2007-02-14T15:02:00.000Z

Here we go again.

He loves me
He loves me not

He loves me
He loves me not

Who bloody cares anyway??

Everyone as usual is going mad, because the advertising campaigns tell us, that if we don’t spend a fortune on our loved ones this day, we are bad, uncaring people

Why the hell would you want to spend £30 on flowers, which would normally cost only £9.99 – why – because we are suckers!!

I am not saying that I wouldn’t want a bunch of flowers, but for £30, I can buy a bunch of flowers and a takeaway on any other day of the year – and enjoy it a lot more.

I have no idea what ‘The Boyfriend’ has been suckered into buying as I haven’t seen him today – later – well at least I know I will be fed, because he is a really good cook and loves cooking.

I being as usual short of the readies, have bought him some: chocolate mini muffins, Cadbury’s crème eggs and two bars of chocolate coated Marzipan, which he loves – Total cost £10 – and I will tell him that I love him – well it seems that men need to be told that they are loved – come to think of it, women do too.

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

Jo xx

Snow days and Holidays

2007-02-11T14:57:00.000Z

Well another week has gone by and not very much has changed with regards to: financial situation, staffing situation and health situation.

Thursday here in London and I think most of Great Britain was a snow day (My back garden above) – I stupidly struggled in to work – I’m a bit of a glutton for punishment – only to find that most of the rest of the staff had not bothered, so we got sent home at around 2pm. Most of the kids that go to my school live in the surrounding area, so they had all turned up for a normal school day, they looked quite sad to be in. The sadness turned to joy, when they were released at 10 am to go back home. Many of them hung around the school grounds, making snowmen and giant snowballs, some of which reached a height of 5 feet – the giant balls are still in the playing fields, gently melting!

One of my colleagues, who is quite short in stature, but rather large in the breast department (40JJ) – took a couple of falls in the snow and ice and hurt her back and elbows – I don’t know why everyone laughs when I tell them this?? I had to drop her home as she was in some considerable pain. On the way we passed a group of our pupils at least 50 strong – I was just behind a bus and they pelted the bus with snowballs as it drove by – I gritted my teeth and nearly closed my eyes; gave them a steely look and almost dared them to throw a snowball at me – not one of them did. Am I really that scary?? Well am I punk?

This morning I went shopping to Brent Cross shopping Centre with my two sons. My eldest needed a new suit for work and I needed to buy my Dad, who is 76 on Tuesday a birthday present. It’s really difficult to buy him anything now as he seems to have lost interest in reading books (he has eye problems) he can’t drink too much as he is diabetic and has kidney problems and he doesn’t eat a lot of things as he has problems chewing (bad teeth). Well I ended up buying him a short-sleeved shirt from Marks and Spencer and a bottle of Harvey’s Bristol Cream (sherry), of which he drinks one small glass per day with his lunch. My youngest son just came along for the ride – and the burger and chips his brother bought him from Burger King.

What I did notice in the shopping centre are all the signs advertising special offers for the School’s half-term break, which is next week. Why would you want to spend £300 on a new games system to keep your children entertained for the week – why don’t people take their children out anymore? Wouldn’t if be better to take them to see something interesting, or go out to a park, visit a museum or just take a walk around the area you live in? For me living in London has always been something amazing and I used to enjoy taking my children out to places, not necessarily to spend money – a walk by the River Thames to see the sights and hear the sounds, free museums and galleries, loads of beautiful parks – all free!! Just walking around London especially the City of London can turn up interesting features and can enrich you and your child far more than plonking them in front of a TV ever could.

Have a look at these websites for ideas of what to do with your precious little angels or even your precious little devils!!

Enjoy England

For some reason the one above doesn’t seem to load up the right page – you may have to type the URL into the address bar, but it is worth it – this is a really good site.

365 Tickets

UK Government

London Visions

All you Mums and Dads out there - TAKE THE KIDS OUT!!!!

Jo xx

LIFE'S UPS AND DOWNS

2007-02-04T08:33:00.000Z

Life lately has been a little of a roller coaster ride - maybe not as high or as low - but it certain has had it's ups and downs. I still haven’t been in the mood for much posting, but I thought I should put a few words down, if only to have a record of what I have been getting up to.

First High - The 'boyfriend' has been particularly sweet and supportive, although he is having considerable problems with his own employment. I have been extra nice to him - only one outburst recently - but it was for his own good!! Nice dinners, Candlelit baths, TV programmes taped for me – what more could a girl/woman want.

First Low - I have been feeling really run down and ill since the beginning of the New Year, sinus problems, insomnia, coughing (and spluttering), chest infection.... etc.
I am taking anti-biotics as we speak, but it doesn't seem to be helping with the hacking cough and breathlessness.

Second High - Went out on Friday night for my friend Jill's birthday. We started off in the local pub 'Moons' in Kingsbury High Road. This pub is the hub of all the local schools and on most Friday nights and End of Terms; you can find a minimum of 50 teachers from all the surrounding schools, coming here to let their hair down. It can be quite scary to see how much alcohol some of these teachers pack away!!

After a few drinks – I wasn’t drinking (anti-biotics) – we made a move to another local pub/ Indian restaurant (Great Eastern), for a curry. This seems to be a great British tradition now and no night out is complete without the obligatory curry. The food was fantastic! I don’t eat very hot curry, so I ordered a Lamb Shahi Korma, which was delicately spiced and creamy, with nice tender chunks of Lamb. I also ordered a Kashmiri Rice, which was Basmati rice with Cashew nuts, Apricots and Sultanas - absolutely delicious! I will definitely be going back there again to try out some of the other dishes.

Second Low - I already mentioned that I have lost a couple of members of staff, so it has been incredibly stressful at work, I have had to deal with the increased workload and try and find replacements - one bit of good news (little high) is that we now have a new person - in situ - for one of the jobs. The other position will be filled by Monday - thank God!!

Third High – It looks like my finances are well on the way to be sorted. I have several plans in the pipeline and life could be financially rosy within the month – well here’s hoping anyway.

Let’s hope that March will be better??

Jo xx

Life is a bit pants at the moment

2007-01-21T13:16:00.000Z

Life has been a bit pants lately –

Oh, but there have been some really good bits, like my friend’s husband’s 50th Birthday, which ‘The Boyfriend’ and I were both invited to.

This was a very swanky affair in a beautiful restaurant called ‘Singapura’ in Limburner Street, which is almost next to St. Paul’s Cathedral in the City of London.

Young and beautiful, Malay and Thai, waiters & waitresses walked around re-filling glasses with, Singapore Slings, Champagne, Beer and any other tipple you fancied – our glasses were never empty. Unfortunately for me, I had made friends with Ibuprofen that evening (still unwell) and could not take advantage of our hosts’ beneficence. Tasty starters were passed around on large platters, Chicken Satay, Sesame Prawn Toast, Thai fishcakes and Vegetable Spring Rolls- thank goodness the Ibuprofen didn’t interfere with my eating – that would have been a catastrophe!! My friends had rented the Restaurant for the evening and all the tables were beautifully laid out for our meal of: Chicken with Soy sauce, Prawns in a Thai Green Curry sauce, Lean and Tender Beef in another spicy and aromatic sauce (don’t remember which), Rice and Steamed mixed vegetables – all wonderfully delicious!! The dessert was a Fresh Tropical Fruit Cocktail with a homemade Lychee Sorbet – scrumptious!!

Throughout the meal there was a slide show with photographs of my friends and their family throughout the years, some very cute pictures of the birthday boy as a handsome little blond boy and some other more embarrassing photos with the obligatory fashion faux pas, which only goes to prove that there is a fashion victim in all of us.

My head started pounding around midnight (Cinderella Time) so I asked my ever-suffering boyfriend to take me home. I heard afterwards that some of the guests embarrassed themselves by overindulging, but I can only say that I had a great time.

My sis Angie, arrived from Mallorca on Wednesday, I went to pick her up from Luton Airport. I have to say that the parking charges there are scandalous – I haven’t been for a while and was horrified when after some delay to the flight and trying to pay my ticket, the machine flashed up that I owed £10 for one and half hours of parking - this is even more expensive than Heathrow Airport!! It’s lovely having Angie over though – she is only staying for a few days, but that’s better than nothing.

Another family event occurred on Thursday, this was my niece’s 21st Birthday, the whole family went to ‘Dragon King’ in Park Royal, for an eat as much as you like Buffet and then afterwards to Mum and Dad’s to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ with one of my sister’s (Palmers Green) cakes – too much food to list - I have mentioned ‘Dragon King’ in previous blogs, so you can always fantasise with one of those.

Bad things are happening at work:

People not listening to what I am telling them to do
People telling me I have to do things that are not in my job description and I am not qualified to deal with.
Still no replacement staff
People going over my head to the Headmaster, to get their own way.
I’m not happy with this situation and am actively seeking alternative employment – I’m feeling demoralised, undermined and underpaid.

Ok – well there is more good than bad in my life – so maybe it isn’t really that pants??

Jo xx

The Fog is Clearing!!

2007-01-15T23:10:00.000Z

I know I am a Librarian, but just lately I haven’t felt much like being one – the main reason has been because I have been feeling a bit under pressure at work, lack of staff to be precise. The pressure caused by sinusitis has been another factor – I have been feeling distinctly under the weather and my best friend has been several packets of Ibuprofen, which have intermittently relieved some of the pressure (no I am not become addicted to painkillers!)

Tonight I am feeling slightly better, or it could be that I am reaching the Zenith of the effect of my painkillers – joking!! Anyhow, somewhere amongst all my grogginess I have managed to read a book – no really. The book in question is P.D.James’ ‘The Children of Men’ – this book has been out since 1992 and last year a film adaptation came out, which I still haven’t seen. My first surprise is that P.D.James is a woman and my second surprise is that I quite enjoyed the book, although it did paint quite a bleak picture of ‘a future Great Britain’. As is usual with ‘Dystopian’ worlds the acquisition of power plays a big part in this novel – what is it about power – why can’t people just be happy with the good things in life? Anyway, it’s quite a short book and has started me thinking about what I should try reading next, perhaps another P.D.James book, now that I know she is a woman (joking again).

Off to bed with Ibuprofen now.... I'm so sleepy.

Jo xx

We are Family

2007-01-10T09:39:00.000Z

I woke up this morning: head pounding, blood on my pillow (nosebleed) and such a sore throat, that I thought someone had spent half the night rubbing it with a file – in short, not a happy bunny. Two hours later and one coffee, two (plain) chocolate digestive biscuits and a couple of Feminax tablets – I feel semi-human – not full of the joys of spring – but ready to face my day. Thank heavens today is my day off, so I have time to contemplate my navel, plus anything else, which takes my fancy.

I have just started reading my brother Joe’s blog, which is always interesting – quite often when we all get together we invariably get on the subject of philosophy and religion. Religion has always been a big part of our lives in this family - our Father particularly was quite a devout Roman Catholic – in recent years and due to ill health he does not seem to have the same fervour, which he demonstrated with force when we were children, his sometimes blind devotion is probably what has made us more aware of religions and their impact on human behaviour. We all have our own views on religion and life and discussions can sometimes become quite heated, but as we have matured we have realised that religion – in the organised sense – is not necessarily the be all and end all. It is ‘The Family’ and the respect of each other as human beings, which in the long run are the most important things.

My sister Angie is coming over from Mallorca next week, to visit for a few days, this is always a joyful time for us, as Angie is a very upbeat person and always injects a sense of fun into everything she does – it’s also a good excuse to have yet another family get together, with, yes you guessed it – more food!!

Until the next time, love and respect to you all.

Jo xx

A KNIFE IN THE BACK

2007-01-04T17:47:00.000Z

Oh, God what a great start to the New Year – not!!

Yesterday, The first day I get back into work, which incidentally should have been my day off, I am told that I am losing yet another member of staff – the most galling thing about this is that this is a friend of mine and she didn’t mention anything to me, which is OK- but she did put me down for a reference for her new job. She has already handed in her notice to quit and to put a cap on it all, has told nearly every other one of my colleagues that she is leaving. Apparently she didn’t want to upset me, because we are such good friends and she didn’t want to let me down. Well I am upset and she has kind of left me in the lurch and I do feel just a little bit miffed – finding out in this way, was not really the way to go, but it’s done now and I just have to get on with things. C’est la vie – I suppose??

I know I have said this before, but the manager thing is not really my thing – I am one of life’s little workers and although I don’t like to be told what to do (because I know), I really don’t like having the responsibility of worrying about whether or not someone is taking me for a ride and not pulling their weight at work (they should know). When I first started in this job, I had my own area of responsibility and I was happy and enthusiastic – well obviously not everyone has the same outlook on life as me and most people don’t give 100% to their jobs, but I always do and I get a kick out of doing a job, well done – I thought everyone was like me – I am so disappointed.

On a personal note, my finances could be on the up and up – my eldest son has offered to take over a couple of the household bills, which will save me around £100 per month: The first is the bill for Sky TV, which I hardly ever get to watch as the football and wrestling are constantly on; the second is the BT Internet bill, which is quite a large chunk for something I don’t use that much either. It is a bit of weight off my shoulders and I appreciate the gesture.

I have to say that at the moment I am brimming over with love for my two boys, who are growing up to be remarkably mature and kind young men and are taking care of their increasingly erratic old Mum (me). My youngest son is as I write this, preparing a homemade Lasagne for our supper – he loves his belly as much as his old Mum.

I am looking forward to my evening meal, in the good company of my children.

Good night and God bless you all.

Jo xx

A New Year, Food and more Food

2006-12-31T12:08:00.000Z

New Year’s Eve is upon us once again and my hasn’t this year just rushed by!

Why is it that when you come to the end of the year, you always start to analyse everything you have done/not done/wanted to do/wished you had the nerve to do/regretted having done .. and so on. I just want to say for the record ‘ Je ne regrette rien!’ or ‘I don’t regret anything’ as Edith Piaf (famous French songstress) used to sing. Not that I have achieved anything earth shattering this year, but I am comfortable with my life and myself and am looking forward to a happy and productive New Year.

Changing the subject quite a bit, I thought that I should mention the amount/variety of food I have eaten this Christmas season – well it has become a little ritual of mine to mention food, now and again, in this blog and being a creature of habit I thought it best to continue on in the best tradition.

Work Christmas outing to Van Antoni’s, Meze Bar in Bushey (20th December)

Starter
Grilled Haloumi Cheese with Water Melon Balls

Main Course
Lamb Moussaka served with herby roast new potatoes

Dessert
Zesty Lemon Torte

All with plenty of Red Wine and then dancing (I love a good dance)

Christmas Lunch at School (22nd December)

Starter
Mixed Indian and Chinese snacks, Crudités and Dips
Glass of Mulled Wine

Main Course
Roast Turkey with Stuffing, Chipolatas and Bacon
Roast Potatoes (not as nice as mine)
Brussels sprouts (hard like bullets)
Carrots (yuck)
Peas
Green beans
Gravy
Cranberry Sauce

Dessert
Christmas Pudding
Mince Pies (burnt on the bottom)
Cream
Custard

Coffee

Christmas Eve (24th December)

At home with my two boys, it has been a long standing tradition in our family to have Lamb Chops and Chips (with lashings of garlic) on this day and not one to break with tradition I cooked a large platter of the above for me and the boys – delicious, finger licking (better than KFC) good!!

Christmas Day (25th December)

The morning started off with just myself and the boys - opening our presents - a cup of coffee and Pork and Apple Sausages from Tesco – we love these sausages.

Later on the ‘boyfriend’ came around to open/give his presents. For the first time in over 25years I would not be cooking a Christmas meal – today it was a slap up meal in ‘Oslo Court’ – no getting flustered and hot over a hot oven, no washing up, no back aching over a turkey as big as a child, just calm, relaxing and joyful eating in warm, comfortable surroundings.

Oslo Court – Christmas Day

Melba Toast and Crudités on the table when you arrive
Hot Garlic Bread Rolls
Dry Martini and Lemonade (aperitif)

Starter
Smoked Salmon and Brown Bread (a huge plate full of succulent salmon)

Soup
Consommé (a delightful refreshing bowl of soup)

Main Course
Rack of Lamb (tender lamb on the bone – (I’m dribbling just thinking about it!)
Roast baby potatoes
Brussels Sprouts
Green beans
Broccoli
Mint Sauce/Redcurrant Jelly

Dessert
The sweet waiter Neil (very camp) loves his desserts trolley and he almost has an orgasm describing his wonderful desserts. I asked for a homemade Crème brulee, which was wonderful and creamy with a lovely crunchy caramel top. He also insisted on bringing me a Strawberry Tart, which was full of beautiful strawberries on a rich short crust pastry base – divine!

Coffee and Petites Fours - loads of sweetie things, Turkish delight, chocolate mints, sugared almonds etc).

They then tried to bring out some Mince Pies, but we really had to say no.

Boxing Day – the whole family at my Parents’ House (26th December)

This was a buffet affair, with contributions from the whole family – we all have our specialities, but I will just list the food on offer.

Paella
Potato Omelette
Roast Pork
Roast Beef
Seafood Salad
Fresh Salad
Garlic Bread
Assorted Savoury Hot Snacks i.e. Sausage Rolls, Crispy Duck pancakes, Sesame Prawn Toast, Samosas, Feta and Cranberry parcels.
Dips and chips – assorted flavours
Smoked Salmon on brown bread
Fresh home made Trifle
Assorted sweets and cakes
Plenty of Bucks Fizz, Wine and assorted alcoholic and non- alcoholic beverages

Amazingly with all the food I have eaten, I don’t seem to have piled on the weight I normally put on over the holiday period, but it’s not over yet and the ex in-laws are coming over for dinner on New Year’s Day – Goose is on the menu, together with many other things, will keep you posted.

Happy eating.

Jo xx

Have yourselves a Merry Little Christmas!

2006-12-26T08:57:00.000Z

I know I haven’t written for a while, but cyberspace just hasn’t been calling to me lately. Things have been so hectic in my life, what with parties; book sales, antique fairs and just general living!! Ooh, aren’t you the lucky one – aren’t you Miss Popular, I hear you sarcastically remark! Well let me tell you, I am absolutely shattered, knackered and f**ked – all this activity is a bit too much for me – after all I am not a young girl anymore.

I have however enjoyed every minute of my very active December – I have:

Sold a couple of hundred pounds worth of books at the School Book Sale.
Shaken my tushi at Van Antoni’s Meze Bar in Bushey
Stuffed my face with food at several pre-Christmas bashes.
Stamped my feet and clapped my hands along with the ladies/gents of Madame Jojo’s in the West End.
Salivated and experienced yet more culinary delights at Oslo Court on Christmas Day.

And finally..

Sunk into my living room couch to watch several versions of, Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ – it just has to be done.

Today, we/I have the yearly ‘Boxing Day’ event at my parents’ house – this will entail yet more, eating, drinking and general merriment. You probably have already gathered if you read my blog, that I have a rather large and noisy family and when we all get together it is even larger and noisier than most, this is mainly to do with the fact that our parents are of Spanish descent and also that we seem to be a bunch of extrovert and confident individuals. People coming into one of our gatherings for the first time, may think they have entered a ‘Hell’ of chaos, everyone talking at the same time, children running around, music blaring, mountains of food on tables and my parents blithely/serenely sitting and presiding like the King and Queen of the World (which they are) – but amongst all this chaos, there is warmth and love and a feeling of great satisfaction that you are a part of the whole, which is our Family…. And after all isn’t that what the ‘Season’ is all about??

A Merry Christmas to you, one and all. Jo xx

DAYLIGHT ROBBERY!!

2006-12-13T15:00:00.000Z

Daylight Robbery??

I watched a TV programme last night, which I can honestly say I have never watched before – The Money Programme – how glad am I!! It dealt with Bank Charges, call them penalty charges or service charges or whatever name the banks are currently giving them – I call them ‘Daylight robbery’. The saddest thing of all is that the people most affected by these charges are the people who can least afford them. Ok I can hear some of you out there saying, “well you shouldn’t spend what you don’t have”, but sometimes it’s just the everyday bills, which are just too much to cope with.

I will give myself as an example – I am on quite a low income as I work part-time in a school, which only employs me during Term times – and yes I did try to get a full time job – rejection is not anything that anyone can easily cope with! Over the years my expenditure has regularly overtaken my income – not always due to extravagance. I have most of my bills paid through my bank – direct debits mainly. Once in a while I miscalculate and forget that I might have spent an extra £20 or more over my budget – when this happens and it does happen at least once every other month it starts a snowball rolling.

I have two particular direct debits totalling £9.00 – during this last summer my bank decided to bounce these three times each – charging me a total of 6 x £38, putting me even further into the red and then penalising me a further £40 plus interest - all these charges came to just under £300 – all for something that should have cost me £9.00. I tried phoning to say that I thought these charges were excessive in relation to amount I had to pay and was fobbed off with ‘you signed a contract’.

That is all I am going to say on this subject except that there are many websites available to help you with the legalities of claiming your money back – Moneysaving expert.com is one of them. Good luck!

On other personal news, I have been really busy with work at school, plus loads of socialising. One of my best friends and colleague is leaving work and we had a party for her yesterday – I got a bit emotional – I am really going to miss her.

Hopefully I will get myself sorted to post something a bit more interesting and varied and also to write a bit more frequently – I have got out of the habit.

Until tomorrow – or the day after.

Jo xx

T'IS THE SEASON TO BE JOLLY

2006-12-06T09:25:00.000Z

Another great night was had by all!!

My sons took me out last night, this was for our yearly pilgrimage to the West End to see the sights and sounds of London and also to celebrate my birthday, which was on Sunday – at this time of the year, I like to see the Christmas lights and look at the shop windows, but definitely no shopping – we usually go after the shops are closed and there are less people around.

My younger son and I met my elder son straight from work – he works in the West End and we agreed to meet him at around 6.30pm by the Ritz Hotel in Piccadilly. He then took us to a nearby pub, where he introduced us to some of his work colleagues. It’s so nice to put faces to names and to have proof that your son is popular and well liked (every Mum likes to know this)!!

What can I say about the three guys we met: The first was Head of security, where my son works – mid-thirties, bald, looks like a club bouncer and talked just like my boyfriend – full of it (bull-shit) is all I can say. He was a really nice friendly guy and I am sure if I got to know him better, he would probably tone down the B.S.; The second guy was a quite camp gay guy, he was really lovely, very well spoken and definitely has a soft spot for my son. He couldn’t really get a word in edgeways, because Big Bouncer Guy kept on talking over him. He won me over though when he started spelling out swear words, because he didn’t want to “offend Mum” ha, ha! I didn’t really speak much to the third guy as he was not that talkative, but both of my boys said he sounded a lot like their Dad and their Uncle Paul, I didn’t get this because Big Bouncer Guy, kept right on talking!!

We left the guys and the pub around 7.45pm and strolled down along Regent Street on to Carnaby Street, where we stopped at another pub, I think it was called ‘Shakespeare’s Head’?? We had another drink and chatted about stuff – I’m sure I was grinning like a Cheshire cat at this point, as I was so proud being out with my two boys looking after me. After the drink we carried on walking to Poland Street, where the Restaurant ‘Bodeans’ and where we would be having our meal. The restaurant was very busy and we waited at the bar for around 15 mins until our table was ready.

As usual I ate far too much:

Starter

Fire/Chilli Char grilled Prawns/shrimp
(Absolutely delicious, very spicy hot though)

Main Course

10 oz Rib-eye steak, served with Fries, Onion Rings, Coleslaw, Salad, Chipotle Butter, Peppercorn Sauce and a Side of Prawns (I told you they were lovely).

Dessert

No dessert, I couldn’t eat another mouthful, but I could have ordered a Mississippi Mud Pie, Key Lime Pie, Fudge Brownies, Apple cobbler or Sweet Potato Bread pudding – BUT I WAS TRYING TO BE A REALLY GOOD GIRL!!

My boys and I are people watchers and we immediately pick up on little quirky things around us, which other people might not find amusing, but we seem to find hilarious. For example: Guy sits down to eat – meal arrives – he flips his tie over his shoulder – result: unrestrained laughter, tears rolling down the cheeks and countless little quips about how if a lady suddenly appeared, would he quickly un-flip his tie and leap to attention – no – well you had to be there I suppose.

After the meal it was about 10.45pm, we walked back towards Bond Street station, taking in the lights along the way, New Bond Street, South Moulton Street and various other lights on shop fronts. One particularly impressive shop front was Debenhams on Oxford Street, which had gone all out with a really impressive red light display, which was very old fashioned, but I really like old-fashioned stuff coz I’m an old-fashioned kind of girl.

By the time we got home it was about 11.30pm, very nearly time for me to turn into a pumpkin, well at any rate, turn in – so off to bed I went.

A big thank you to my wonderful boys for being so lovely to their old Mum.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

2006-12-03T22:47:00.000Z

Sometimes the best time is had, when you least expect it – a spur of the moment decision, can turn out to be one of the most memorable.

Tonight was such a night. It started with a desire to see one of my sisters, whom I had not seen for a couple of months – we thought it was about time to get together and have a good old chin wag – like you do.

It went something like this:

ME: We should really get together, before Christmas, let’s get the kids together too – maybe round at my house?

SISTER: Why don’t we ask LC too and his kids – he always feels like we leave him out of these things, but they are so spur of the moment?

ME: That’s a good idea – well let’s decide which day – Oh I can’t do that day, I am going somewhere with my friends – and you can’t do that day because you have a work function to go to.

SISTER: What about going to Mum and Dad’s next Sunday for tea, we could meet up there?

ME: Oh, that’s my Birthday – I’ll bring a cake.

Next day I ask my Mum if it’s ok for us to come around for tea next week – my Dad is more than enthusiastic, he loves having his children and grandchildren around him. Mum says – well, I’ll tell you what, I will make a paella and you can all have supper here. Dad pipes up – what about that lovely prawn & seafood cocktail you make, I’d love some of that?’ Ok, well I had better ask LC if he will make a big potato omelette – the kids love it!!

Before you know it the tea that was, has turned into a fully fledged party – complete with crisps, drinks, cakes and birthday candles – I haven’t blown out candles on a cake for years and my Sister (Palmers Green) did us proud, with not one cake but two marvellous concoctions, sorry no photo – I didn’t take my camera.

I do feel a bit like the Queen, with her official and unofficial birthdays. On Friday at work I had a procession of students wishing me a ‘Happy Birthday’. I even had one student, who baked and iced a cake for me complete with my name on it – I felt very loved. My work colleagues also spoilt me rotten and bought me some lovely gifts, see photo below.

I still have some birthday treats to come – my friends Steve and Jill are taking me out on Thursday to the Cinema and for a meal.

My sons are taking me out for a meal on Tuesday evening, to a steak and rib place in the West End, somewhere around Soho. I will also be doing my yearly walk through Oxford Street and Regent Street, to look at the shop windows and the Christmas Lights.

I have left the best for last – my Boyfriend, wonderful man that he is, absolutely spoiled me rotten on Saturday. We started off with Breakfast in bed, a nice leisurely bath and then lunch at what is now my all time favourite restaurant Oslo Court.

I had:

Coquilles san Jacques
Which is a scallop shell, stuffed with scallops and prawns in a creamy sauce, topped with creamed potato – divine.

Grilled Veal chop with Lemon and Rosemary
The biggest veal chop I have ever seen - beautifully cooked and served with:
Battered Zucchini (courgettes)
Green Beans
Sautéed potatoes
Petites pois
Rosti

Dessert was the creamiest Cheesecake I have ever tasted, topped with fresh raspberries.

Coffee and petites fours (a selection of chocolate covered almonds, Turkish delight, marzipan sweets, chocolate hearts and after dinner mints.

Plus three dry Martinis and Lemonade!

After the meal, we went to Oxford Street where, super boyfriend, bought me two beautiful tops to where over the Christmas season.

We then took a bus to Victoria Station, where we went to see the new show ‘Wicked’, which was totally unexpected and a wonderful surprise. The show was fabulously entertaining, with a magical set, a great cast and wonderful songs.

We got back home around 11pm, whereupon I zonked out on the bed until the next morning.

I am the luckiest girl/woman in the world!!

COURT LIFE AND DODGY CHARACTERS

2006-11-23T22:00:00.000Z

Well here I am again, older and wiser, but with so many more questions than I had at the beginning of the week.

I was informed this afternoon, that my services would not be required as Juror, tomorrow or even next week. I should have attended for two weeks, but apparently there is a backlog of cases, which are taking longer than expected. The Jury assembly room was absolutely choc-a-block, there were not enough seats for people to sit down, and those who had been waiting for cases to begin, were bored to tears.

I was lucky/unlucky enough to get on a case, which involved a young woman receiving money through deception. The deception was that she was subletting a flat she was living in (not a criminal offence) to several people at the same time - 9 people to be exact!! We the jury, were told that two men were also involved in this deception, but unfortunately the Police were unable to apprehend these two.

The questions in this case arose because of questions not put to the accused (defendant) by the police at her arrest and by the prosecution whilst in the witness stand. Other questions arose when one of the character witnesses got up on the stand to speak, ‘Slippery eel’ sprang to mind immediately. This guy was her boss, but somehow he just gave me the creeps – and when the case finished, I felt that this guy warranted some investigation, although he wasn’t relevant(??) to the case – I 'Googled' him and found out that he had a prior conviction for tax evasion in 1990 and a string of bankrupt firms, where millions of pounds were owed to investors/creditors in each case – he has managed to avoid being sent to prison, because he never seems to be a named Director of any of these companies. He runs sex parties attended by high society, politicians and possibly even high court judges!! What a strange world we live in.

Anyway the verdict on the evidence given was guilty – I actually felt a bit bad as I might be sending someone to prison – but she was definitely guilty!

I have to say the Judge was absolutely lovely, he wasn’t young, but he had a certain way about him and put all of us at our ease. The ladies in the Jury office giggled and said this happened regularly and that this particular Judge set many a ladies’ heart fluttering.

I made Steak Fajitas for me and the boys tonight, served with Guacamole, Salsa, Chopped up Lettuce, Grated Cheese and Sour Cream all wrapped in tortillas – not one bit was left in the pan – we are all jolly good eaters!!

Back to work tomorrow – off to bed in a minute.

Love Jo xx

Busy, busy, busy

2006-11-17T17:15:00.000Z

My school is closed for an Inset day or Staff training for those of you not in the know – I only get paid for 2 of the 4 training days and this is one I do not have to attend, so I had all of today to myself.

Some days you wake up all full of vim and vigour –ready to tackle all those jobs around the house that you have put off for ages.

Cleaning out my elder son’s room – whilst he is on holiday-he’s back tomorrow morning – I know I have left it a bit late, but I seem to work better under pressure.

Catching up on all the washing, which has miraculously accumulated in corners, under beds and even under mattresses?? Don’t ask!!

Cleaning the Goldfish’s disgustingly cloudy tank out and giving it a good Spring (Autumn/Fall) cleanout.

Order some flowers for my Sister in law, whose 40th birthday is on Monday.

Post a birthday card before 5pm (Gah!! I’ve missed that one)

Eat something – anything.

All of the above did not include, at any point – the bored boyfriend – turning up unannounced at my house and spending three hours, boring me to death about a poster he has had printed and getting interested in a Humphrey Bogart film on TCM. He had a job to go to at Farnham airfield, but it wasn’t until 5pm, so he thought he would kill a few hours with me.

S-T-O-P-P-I-N-G M-E I-N M-Y T-R-A-C-K-S!!!

I hate being interrupted in the middle of cleaning as it cuts through my impetus and I find it very difficult to get back into the groove.

I have just spoken to my sister (Palmers Green) about my sister Angie, who lives in Mallorca. She writes in her blog that she had a car accident – but what she didn’t tell us was that she burnt her arm, broke a finger and was suffering mild whiplash. We are a very close family, so when my brother London Cabby, told my Mum and Dad they phoned her straight away to find out how she was. It just goes to show you the power of the blog. We may not talk to each other very often, but the blogs certainly do keep us connected.

I have just finished reading one of my favourite kind of books – Fantasy/Sci Fi - this one is written by Todd McCaffrey, son of Anne McCaffrey, who wrote the Dragons of Pern series. The book is called ‘Dragonsblood’ and is as good as any of those written by his mother – I have the whole series and am looking forward to anything he might write continuing this saga.

I am going to be doing my civic duty starting on Monday – I have been called to Jury Service. I will be going to, Middlesex Guildhall, near the Houses of Parliament. I am quite looking forward to doing something different for a change, although travelling into Central London on the tube is not something I relish – I can’t stand being squashed in, but on the upside, it will be nice to be near the River and I will be meeting new people, something I really enjoy doing. I hope I don’t get anything too gory or too sad, but beggars can’t be choosers. Perhaps after it’s all over I might be able to let you know what kind of case, if any, I had to attend – law permitting of course.

The only thing that is really worrying me about sitting on a jury is that I am frightened of falling asleep!! I hate being in really warm rooms, especially in the afternoon and I know, that if the barristers, witnesses, Judge are droning on – I will fall asleep. I really don’t know how I can keep myself awake. I thought I might buy some Pro plus and see if that helps. I know I have this problem, because when I was at college taking a Business Studies course, I regularly used to fall asleep in the afternoon lesson and on more than one occasion I bashed my head on the desk, when my arm slipped!!

I hope next week you won’t be reading:

JUROR HELD IN CONTEMPT OF COURT FOR SLEEPING ON THE JOB!!

G’dnite m’lud.

Jo xx

LEST WE FORGET

2006-11-12T22:33:00.000Z

Today is Remembrance Sunday, this day we remember the fallen from many wars – wreaths are laid at the Cenotaph by The Queen and countless other dignitaries. At the same time around the country are those who understand this day all too well, for they have lost loved ones.

One of my favourite poets is Wilfred Owen a young man who fought and died during the First World War. His poems are disturbing and sad and realistic – but then he knew.

Anthem for Doomed Youth

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
-Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,-
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Our love and our thoughts go out to all families around the world who have lost a loved one because of wars.

Swords and Needles

2006-11-08T21:22:00.000Z

Up and down, in and out, that’s what makes the world go round.

Side to side, back and forth, that’s what makes the world go round.

For every high there is a low, for every stop there is a go…………….

Yes I know, I have completely lost it, well not quite – the lyrics above are from a song in the Walt Disney cartoon film ‘The Sword in the Stone’. They are possibly not totally correct, but for some reason they have been running through my head all day.

Perhaps I have been trying to cheer myself up??

I had just started to eat my food almost normally, when I had to visit the dentist today – no root canal work (yet) thank God – but I did have to have an old filling replaced – I was feeling quite happy until he stuck the needle into my gum and hit the nerve – electric shock- is what springs to mind – the pain was so sharp I screamed and cried at the same time – I grabbed the nurses hand and nearly wrenched her fingers off in my desire to escape my torturer – he did seem to feel sorry for me – I am not normally a screamy type of person. He told me that his wife was expecting a baby any day now, so I informed him to let her know, that having a baby was preferable to a needle through a nerve – truly!! My face, lip, cheek, chin and tongue were numb for nearly three hours and when the numbness wore off the dull throbbing pain started – I went to bed with some Ibuprofen.

I went into Aldi
in Kingsbury High Road today, they already have all their Christmas biscuits, Stollen Cake, Shortbread, Panettone in stock ready for Christmas.

I bought a Stollen Cake for my boyfriend – he loves the marzipan in the middle. I do tend to buy him a lot of sweet stuff, although he is really quite overweight, I suppose I am eating by proxy – I get him to eat all the things I shouldn’t eat and watch him get fatter instead – not very nice really am I?

I have just finished reading a children’s book called ‘The Forging of the Sword’ by Mark Robson.
It was a most enjoyable read, you could definitely tell that he had gone through armed forces training as quite a large part of the book involves the day to day training routines, punishments and team building exercises that make up Army/Air Force/Navy life. It is a mixture of reality and fantasy and has some good characters in the story, it is quite moralistic and in a strange way reminds me of some of Enid Blyton’s stories – I can’t wait to start on the next instalment ‘Trail of the Huntress’.

Well I think I will have an early night.

Ta, Ta.

Jo xx

Living the life

2006-11-06T23:25:00.000Z

I just wanted you to see this photo I took in New York, I have been practising using Photoshop a lot recently and I really like the way this one came out - I did have a bit of help from my mate Steve.

Ok, so I’m not writing so much now – when you have an excruciating pain in your mouth, see how you feel about putting pen to paper or tapping keys on keyboards for that matter!!

No really, I have been meaning to write, but have been tied up at work and at home. My eldest son has gone to Cancun (Mexico) for a two week holiday, he is meeting up with a friend who has been travelling around for the past couple of months and they are taking a two week vacation in an all inclusive, all singing, all dancing and probably loads of drinking – Hotel - made in the style of a Mayan temple!! Hopefully he should return from this holiday refreshed and ready to face work again - sorry to remind you darling.

My youngest son had a thrilling experience yesterday evening, his football team, Tottenham Hotspurs beat Chelsea 2-1 in an edge of seat, nail biter of a match – apparently Tottenham haven’t beaten Chelsea for something like 16 years. I am not a football fan, but for my son’s sake I was praying they would win, the last two minutes of the match were so tense, I think I stopped breathing.

Also yesterday was November 5th – Guy Fawkes Day – a strange British celebration, which commemorates a gunpowder plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605. British people celebrate this day by spending millions of pounds on gunpowder, in the form of fireworks and burn effigies of Guido Fawkes on huge bonfires – all so good for the ozone layer!! I know I shouldn’t really enjoy the fireworks, but there is something quite exciting about watching/hearing the blaze of colour and sound erupting all around London. Here on the heights of Dollis Hill, I have a marvellous view from my bedroom window where I ooh and aah to my heart’s content – naturally my children and ‘the boyfriend’ think I am completely mad!! It’s not me, it’s the others.

I have already mentioned my painful tooth and I am not looking forward to my visit to the Dentist on Wednesday – but the needs must and so must I. My boyfriend was being extra solicitous towards me this weekend and thought he would cook me one of my favourite foods Calamares – unfortunately he overcooked them and when I tried to bite into one of them it was rock hard and snapped in my mouth – I SCREAMED WITH THE PAIN – and the tears forced themselves out from my eyes. My boyfriend was grief-stricken that he was the cause of my upset. He redeemed himself by cooking me a lovely – soft – meal of Salmon, mashed potatoes with spinach, onion and garlic – DELICIOUS.

I thought I would finish with this really great photo, which a friend of mine took whilst we were in New York last week – loads of New York cabs – and no I didn’t meet Melissa Plaut of New York Hack fame!!

Y’all have a nice day now, y’hear.

Jo xx

I HAD THE TIME OF MY LIFE

2006-11-01T15:04:00.000Z

Well it certainly has been an eventful week.

You may or may not know that I have spent the last five days in the Big Apple – New York City.
Good and bad things to report.

BAD THINGS

Paper Plates and Plastic Cutlery

What’s that all about?? Nearly everywhere we were served food on disposable stuff. I had a terrible time trying to eat my Pancakes, Maple Syrup, Bacon and Eggs (over easy). Crispy bacon is not easily cut with a plastic knife and fork!!

Service with a smile

The service here has deteriorated since the last time I visited in 2000.
Shop assistants and waiters have a nasty habit of asking you how you are, or telling you to ‘Have a nice day’, when really all they want you to do is buy something and go away. I thought British people were surly but after being in NY for a few days I was hard pressed to find someone who was genuinely nice.

Pushy Waiters

We did go to what we thought was going to be a really nice Italian Restaurant in the Lower East side called ‘Supper’. When we got there we had to wait for 45 minutes for a table in a very cramped small bar beside the restaurant – when eventually we were seated the waiter swiftly served us – pleasantly at first – then more briskly as the meal progressed – to the point that he didn’t offer us a dessert!! The plates appeared and disappeared at a rate of knots and the final straw was when the bill appeared without us even having asked for it and whilst we were still eating. I will not be recommending this place to anyone.

GOOD THINGS

The Buildings

New York has many beautiful Art Deco buildings, with wonderful lobbies and panoramic views of the city.

We went to the top of the Rockerfeller building ‘The Top of The Rock’ where on the 69th floor we had a most wonderful view of the sunset and watched in awe as New York City began twinkling before our very eyes. A lot less queuing than the Empire State and less people made this a very enjoyable experience.

We saw the impressive Grand Central Station and the gorgeous Chrysler Building – my personal favourite.

The Food

Pancakes with Maple Syrup

Bacon and Eggs (over easy)

Pecan Cheesecake

Cup Cakes from the Magnolia Bakery in Greenwich Village

Yams with Walnuts

Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches

Pumpkin Pie

I am going to stop now as I have begun to drool.

Strange Happenings

A well dressed man in a good suit wearing lipstick!!

2 Russian Prostitutes in a diner, arranging a date to meet a client (price and everything) with their pimp on the phone, whilst the client stood by patiently waiting.

Being told to keep quiet in a Jazz Bar by the musicians – the guitarist sounded like he was having an orgasm listening to his own playing – the music was crap!!

Loads of weird and wonderful costumes for the Halloween weekend. Angels with huge feathered wings, Rabbits, Witches, Puppets – complete with strings and thousands of pumpkins.

Since I have returned I have been suffering quite badly with Jet Lag, also I have an infection in the root of one of my teeth and my face is swollen and sore – I am taking antibiotics and Ibuprofen for the pain. None of this can take away the fact that I had a most wonderful holiday – but I am glad to be back in dear old Blighty!!

HOLIDAYS!!!!!!

2006-10-23T11:13:00.000+01:00

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

It's a wonderful town!!

I'm off to New York tomorrow, incase you couldn't tell I am really, really excited.

I haven't written much lately - can't be asked - hopefully a more normal type of service will resume on my return.

I've got a new memory card for my Camera, so hopefully I should be able to take lots of shots for my scrap book.

Got to go now, busy, busy, busy.

Lots of love Jo xx

LIFE, EARTHQUAKE AND MADONNA (AND FOOD)

2006-10-16T19:17:00.000+01:00

As another day comes to a close, I realise what a comfortable and insular world I live in - comfortable inasmuch as I have a roof over my head, food for the table and a warm bed to sleep in at night - everything else is a bonus.

Today has been a really hectic day a work, lots of tooing and froing and even a bit of froing and tooing - if you know what I mean, heh, heh. The year 11s are desperately trying to finish assorted types of coursework, the year 12s are preparing their personal statements for their UCAS applications (entry to University), the year 10s are running around like headless chickens (they never know what they are doing) and the year 13s are running around like loonies (they know what they are doing, but they don’t care)!!

There is just over a week before I go on my trip to New York and I am sooo looking forward to this. I will be travelling with a few friends from work, a total of six of us. We will be arriving at JFK airport at around 11am - upon our arrival (after dropping off our luggage) we will be going directly to the Guggenheim, which should kill a few hours as we can’t check in to our apartments until 3pm - I am sure we will find plenty to keep us amused. I have already been asked by several kids at school for different things: Some Big Apple key rings, some peanut stuff by a company called Reese , some Hershey kisses and some chocolate fudge brownies, with a picture of a girl on the packaging?? I don’t think I am going to have enough room to carry all this, but I will try my best.

NEW YORK HERE I COME, WOO HOO!!!

I just read Wil’s blog tonight ‘ Paradise Driver’, I hadn’t read it for a few days and didn’t realise that there had been an earthquake in the Islands of Hawaii – I know it wasn’t a major quake, but it was enough to knock out electricity supplies in a lot of places, which in turn has a knock on effect to others services such as the water supply. I hope everything sorts itself out, without too much hardship for all the people that live there – our love and best wishes go out to any affected by this

In London on the news tonight – Madonna adopting a baby in Malawi – why??

That baby has a family, who love him, but cannot afford to keep him. If Madonna wants to help this child, why doesn’t she sponsor him, pay for his upkeep and his education – why do celebrities think that by taking a child from its home they are necessarily giving them a better life – and by whose standards should these actions be judged.

Madonna, ‘Get your big fat purse out and sponsor several families’!!

Until all the richest people in the world realise that they can make a difference, by spending not very much of their not always hard earned cash – the poorest will always remain just that.

I am going to visit Kew Gardens on Wednesday, with my sister (Palmers Green) and my Dad – it’s really a visit for my Dad as he thought that he would already be having dialysis by now, but at the last hospital appointment he had, he was told that his (creatine??) levels were up and this meant that he still had several more dialysis free months – he wept with relief. Hopefully the weather will be kind to us and we will enjoy our little outing to a very beautiful part of London.

Just to finish on a foodie note – I was very fortunate last Saturday to be taken to a wonderful Restaurant near Regent’s Park, it is called 'Oslo Court’, so named because it is in a block of luxury apartments. The owner is Spanish from Galicia as are most of the waiters. The food is scrumptious and generously supplied - the sweet trolley is to die for. My friend, who was celebrating her birthday had booked it in August. It is such a popular place and there is a real mixture of clientele - some well heeled clients and us more ordinary bods. The lovely thing about it is the friendly and efficient service, I would definitely go again - the prices are reasonable too. For a three course meal, plus loads of extras (not including drinks) it came to £26. 50 per head (Lunchtime menu).

I had:

Melba Toast and mixed crudites, anchovy olives and garlic mayonnaise

Starter of a huge plate of calamari with tartare sauce

Main course of Beef Wellington (perfectly cooked), served with green beans, carrots, petit pois, battered courgettes and sauteed potatoes.

Dessert (so much choice) I had a lemon meringue pie, which I have to say was nigh on orgasmic!!

Coffee and two large plates of mixed sweets, including Turkish delight, Marzipan fruits, Mint creams, fondant hearts, mini Florentines and little red foiled fondant hearts.

We few, we happy few.

Jo xx

LIFE'S LITTLE LUXURIES

2006-10-09T19:19:00.000+01:00

I am now the proud owner of a Rigby & Peller brassiere (bra); this is the same company that makes bras for the Queen of England, who like me has an incredibly large chest!! I had always thought that I was a 38 D or DD, but apparently I have been wrong all these years and am a 36 FF!! I have no idea what these measurements are equivalent to around the world, but I am sure Google or some other search engines can supply the facts if anyone is interested.

It all started with my mentioning to my boyfriend that I needed to get myself some new bras (plural) – a couple of days later he turned up at my home with a most lovely carrier bag tied with a ribbon. Inside the bag was a lovely box of the same colour as the bag and tied with an even larger ribbon. Inside the box, was a voucher to the value of £50 (approx $100)!!

“Go out and buy yourself a nice bra,” he said

“I won’t get much for £50,” says I

“The lady in the shop said you could easily get a bra for that amount” he replied

“ Does she know that I am 5 feet tall, overweight, with a large chest?” I asked him

“It doesn’t matter I will give you the difference if it is more” he most generously replied.

Today I went to Brent Cross Shopping Centre to Rigby & Peller, where I was assessed and told that my current bra was totally the wrong bra for my size.

Why are shop lights and mirrors so unflattering? Perhaps they really tell the truth?

My bra is white and lacy with a flower on the strap and cost me £65!! This is the most expensive piece of underwear I have ever owned and I am just a little frightened to take it out of its beautiful box (I love the box) and wear it. Quite frankly I would have been happy with box – I am so easily pleased.

What a lovely weekend it has been and what a lovely day (weatherwise), I would say I am full of the joys of spring, but it is Autumn (Fall), I do love this time of the year especially the colours of the trees. I was browsing the Deviant Art website and came across this beautiful shot, which I though you might like to have a look at.

The above photograph was taken by Julia Dunin-Brzezinska - take a look at her gallery, she has some really lovely shots.

A restful evening to you all.

Jo xx

CHILDREN AND LIFE

2006-10-08T20:23:00.000+01:00

I’ve come to realise the benefits of motherhood – it has taken quite some time, but I am now reaping the harvest of my life. I have two sons, the elder is 24 years old and the younger is 19, they have both grown up to be honest and hardworking young men - loyal to their friends and family and generous in spirit and deed – those who have reaped their kindness range from the tiniest of babies to the smelliest of tramps in the streets of London.

Today my two wonderful sons took me out for lunch – granted I did ask them to take me out, but in their defence they were quite happy to treat their old Mum to a local tex-mex meal at Chiquitos in Staples Corner. As is usual in our family, we all ate far too much!!

All this loving and kindness, makes me wonder how some families can be so cruel to each other? You read in the newspapers every week, about child abuse: sexual, physical and mental abuse. You walk into any bookshop and can pick up at least 20 different books with biographies about terrible childhoods and how each of these children overcame their awful lives to become successful adults. I have read quite a lot of these books and am appalled at how cold and cruel a Mother, Father or any other family member can be to one of their own and what it is that makes them behave in this way to another human being? What amazes me even more is the way these abused children seem to overcome every obstacle and ultimately break away from their abusers. I sometimes wonder why people – why I – read these books?? Is it perhaps that we want to confirm that we are better people, because we would never do this to our children? Maybe we read them and give thanks that our lives were nothing like these beleaguered children? Or maybe some people are just sick and get pleasure out of reading about someone else’s suffering? Whichever is the reason these books are an extremely popular genre and perhaps an inspiration to those who might be suffering abuse at home.

While we are on the subject of children and suffering have a look at the NSPCC website, maybe you can make a difference.

I also thought I might list a few of the ones I have read and perhaps you might try some and let me know what you think.

BIOGRAPHICAL BOOKS

Angela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt (A hard childhood in Ireland)

A Child Called It – Dave Pelzer (A mother’s cruelty towards her son)

A Brothers journey: Surviving a childhood of abuse – Richard B. Pelzer (Dave Pelzer’s brother, who suffered after his brother had left the family home)

Ugly – Constance Briscoe (A mother’s cruelty towards her daughter – also a father’s neglect)

OTHER STORIES ABOUT CHILD ABUSE

The Colour Purple – Alice Walker

I know why the caged bird sings – Maya Angelou

I know this might all sound really depressing, but one of the main things I noticed about all these stories was that while the children in question were being abused other adults, not the abusers, were standing by and allowing all of it to happen – making them almost as bad as the abusers themselves!!

If you read any of these books, learn by them and appreciate your comfortable and safe lives.

Goodnight, sleep tight and don’t let the bedbugs bite.

Jo xx

CORRIDORS OF LIFE

2006-10-05T21:26:00.000+01:00

Working in a school of more than two thousand kids, my life is bound to have its share of highs and lows - thankfully the highs outweigh the lows or I wouldn’t still be working there.

This last week has been incredibly busy for lots of reasons – I am still struggling with having one member of staff less than I should have. When it pours with rain outside, inside it pours with ‘herberts’ (silly children) - these 'herberts' normally stay out in the playground and amuse themselves by ganging up on other kids or finding things to smash up – the library is not a cool place to be. However, when the rain comes tumbling down even the ‘herberts’ are not averse to entering the geeks domain and they flock together like sheep, rush down the corridors and descend on my hallowed place of work, like a swarm of ravening locusts, wreaking havoc in their path. These children are around 14 – 15 years of age and are growing like weeds and I am only five feet tall!! I spend most of the breaks and lunch hour, spreading my arms out as wide as I can and herding them back to whence they came. Remarkably they are quite pliable and the only resistance they offer is ‘Why’re you chucking us out Miss, we ain’t dun nuffink bad?’ Ah, the joys of a good British education!!

Yesterday I was working in the lower school, when some bright spark thought it would be a good idea to show a video on ‘Body Image’ – this was for a PSHE lesson (Personal & Social Health Education) – mm, yes I know what you are thinking! Anyway, it would have been more than enough having a class of 30 in a room with 35 seats, but the bright spark decided to have two classes of 30 = total 60 = absolute bedlam!!!! We had them sitting on tables, chairs, floors and even shelves – and to make things even more chaotic the teachers, who were assigned to look after these little darlings, were what I can only describe as wimps. These pupils had no interest in the video and talked all the way through the half hour presentation – we also had the pleasure of witnessing two lads running the length and breadth of the library, knocking over books and chairs in their wake. What were the teachers doing – well watching the video of course? I snapped, I shouted, I very nearly cursed – and all of a sudden the teachers woke up and realised that it wasn’t a dream and that they really were being paid to do some work.

DISCLAIMER: This is not an attack on all those good teachers out there, of which there are many, this is however an attack on those who call themselves teachers and take the tax payers money and give absolutely nothing in return.

On Wednesday, we had a welcome lunch for all the new year 12 students – these students have come from schools all over the borough, which maybe don’t have a 6th Form (year 12/13) – it’s a chance for the staff to get to have a chat and introduce themselves and find out a little more about them in an informal setting. We had a lot of great characters there and more reserved students – some of them were finding it difficult to settle in as they had left their friends behind in other schools. One young lady was having a particularly hard time and burst into tears – some of the teachers were trying to comfort her by patting her on the shoulder and saying ‘there, there’. Super Matron (that’s me) – swooped on her giving her the biggest hug I could possibly give her, she snuggled right up to me as if she had never had a hug before – I really felt for her - I later found out that her Mother had recently died – she obviously needed that hug.

Big hugs and kisses for anyone who needs them.

Jo xx

PS. You might be interested in knowing, that I have started reading again – I haven’t read a books since the beginning of the Summer. My book of choice is ‘Ugly’ by Constance Briscoe – it is a book about a mother’s abuse of her child and how the child deals with this abuse – I’m only half way through it, so don’t really know what is going to happen.

A LIFE OF PEACE

2006-10-01T13:04:00.000+01:00

I haven’t been reading any books lately, although I have been reading articles in the press and in other blogs, relating to religious fanaticism and demonstrations of peoples devotion to their religion. One blog in particular(Joee's Blog) made me want to write a little about what I believe in – when I read all the comments, I was quite upset that some of the people who professed to being Christian, felt such hatred and used such violent language, when the very thing they were angry about was violence!!

I am a lapsed Catholic – I don’t say that I am against the Catholic Church, but I do believe that there are many elements in every religion’s doctrines that actually contradict their own fundamental teaching.

DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO

DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO SAY

DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO WEAR

DON’T TELL ME WHAT I CAN AND CANNOT LISTEN TO

DON’T TELL ME WHAT I CAN LOOK AT

DON’T TELL ME WHAT I CAN BELIEVE IN

Don’t do any of these things – I won’t do them to you – and then and only then can we all live in Peace.

Religion in all its forms does all of the above, so perhaps it is the cause of all the wars - or perhaps it’s because the human element is involved?? When humans are involved in anything, somewhere along the line it is corrupted – this is not to say that all humans are corrupt, but somehow an honourable reason for doing something quite often turns into something not so honourable.

What gives any of us the right to believe that our beliefs are more important or more right than anyone else’s beliefs? Our pride in what we believe in makes us feel that our religion is ‘the one and only’ and when people don’t agree, it angers us. We go to church every Sunday and we want the priest/pastor/vicar/preacher to make sure they see us – to see that we are good (in this case) Christians, but why are we doing it – we want to get to heaven – if a heaven does exist? We are greedy for attention, we are lazy and think the only thing we need to do is to look like we are praying once a week. We are jealous of any extra attention the clerics might give to anyone and think that we deserve it more and constantly lust after attention to the point of gluttony.

I abhor violence in any shape and those that terrorise in the name of religion are no better than any ordinary criminal – they are not doing it for their God they are doing it for themselves.

On a much lighter note, my eldest son says we should have an organisation like the 'Justice League' to police the world - oh if it were that easy!!

Peace and love to you all. Jo xx

LIFE IN THE OLD DOG YET

2006-09-26T18:24:00.000+01:00

I know I have been probably sounding a little philosophical or maybe even down lately and honestly I can think of no real reason for my being in the doldrums, but coincidentally a friend of mine at work has been feeling a little less than her usual self. She said that she started feeling that way after she attended a wedding at the weekend. The bride and groom were in their 60’s and were very much in love with each other. My friend, who is in her early 50’s and is on her own, is suddenly now after a lifetime of independence, feeling that she would like to have a certain someone of her own - A companion, a bedmate, someone to share the rest of her life with. Someone told her that Salsa classes were a great way to meet men and that they personally knew three couples who had met this way – so Salsa it is then. She has also enrolled in Belly dancing classes!! Some lucky man out there is in for a treat!!

I have been attending a Photoshop course for the past two weeks, run by my friend Steve. We have been learning to glamorise portraits of ourselves. I have learned the following useful tricks.

How to get rid of the shiny spots on my cheeks, nose and chin

How to get rid of bags under my eyes

How to make my teeth whiter

How to make my eyes less yellow/red

How to get rid of moles/freckles and other facial marks

How to make my skin smoother –getting rid of my open pores in the process

How to make my face thinner (Oh joy!!)

I have still to learn how to lessen my double chin and how to plump up my lips without the nastiness of botox/silicone.

I would not subject you to a photo of me, pre-processing, but I may – when I feel beautiful enough – post a photo I feel reflects the inner me - thinner, wrinkle-free, eye bag free and sparkly.

Tomorrow, it’s my sister’s (Palmers Green) wedding anniversary; she has been married for 20 years!! It is also her son’s 16th birthday, so she has arranged for as much of the family as possible to visit one of my favourite, and cheap eating places ‘Dragon King’ in Acton (Park Royal). It should be fun as it is a little while since we had a bit of a get together and we do all enjoy a good feed – details of items eaten to follow, tomorrow (maybe).

I was working at the lower school today and one of the Year 13 students overheard me mentioning that I have a Deviant Art membership – he said that he had one too – he asked could he have a look at my work, so I gave him the details, forgetting that in my profile I had listed my interests as: Reading, Singing, Blogging and SEX!! Was my face ever red, it’s a bit like finding out that your parents are still doing it – gross!! I think I will have to remove that part, just in case he tells any other students in the school – HOW EMBARASSING!!!

I’m off to ‘the boyfriends’ house tonight, he will be cooking for me – again – I’m not quite sure what he is cooking, but it’s sure to be tasty as he is a good cook and knows what I like – he’s a good lad.

My tummy is all rumbly, ta ta for now.

Jo xx

THE FOUR AGES OF MAN/WOMAN

2006-09-20T11:08:00.000+01:00

Why are children always in such a hurry to grow up? I was always told as a child that as I got older that time would seem like it was passing faster – you know what, it’s true!!

The day before yesterday I was at school – a child – carefree, with the only decision to make on any given day, was what colour to paint the sky, or a tree or a flower.

Yesterday I was getting married – a young adult – excited, looking forward to new adventures, having children, seeing them grow and develop.

Today I am sitting in front of my computer – a middle aged woman – content with my lot, still looking forward to new adventures, my children are two fine young men.

Tomorrow I don’t know where I will be – an old lady – hopefully still content, hopefully still looking forward to new adventures, hopefully watching my grandchildren trying to decide what colour to paint their, sky, trees or flowers.

THE LIFE IN QUESTION

2006-09-17T22:12:00.000+01:00

There are times in your life when you question your existence.

Why am I here?

What am I doing with my life?

Where am I going?

I am neither depressed at the moment nor am I ecstatically happy - I just am.

I am thirsty for new experiences

I am bored with old habits

I am thinking that I have gone totally doo-lally (mad)
End of brain fart
Back to normality – such as it is.

My Mum and brother London Cabby are back from their one week working holiday in ‘The Palms’ (Las Palmeras). I say working holiday because both of them spent most of the holiday, cleaning and clearing out rubbish, and moving boxes and bags of stuff for my youngest sister, who has decided to sell her property in Spain. My other sister - So this is Paradise – went over to Valencia from Mallorca for a few days to join them and with her came her hubbie and two children. It’s a shame I couldn’t go over too, I would have really liked to spend some time with my sis Angie, but I am still trying to get the pennies together for my trip to New York in October. Sooo looking forward to this!!

I have spent some time with my Dad this week since my Mum has been away. We have all been taking turns in keeping him company and keeping him entertained and fed – not that he is totally incapable of doing these things for himself. He is not really used to spending much time on his own and although he would never admit it, he really does miss my Mum when she is away – aw sweet! We spent several hours on Saturday, watching Charlie Chaplin Films – he really was such a talented guy, he practiced every scene until it was perfect and he expected perfection from everyone around him – he was a difficult man to work for.

We watched: City Lights, Shoulder Arms and Monsieur Verdoux, my favourite of these is the last one, which he made in 1947, it was one of the few talkies he made and is a Black Comedy - well worth watching - Chaplin plays the part of a perfectly respectable married man, with a dark secret!!

This week I shall be starting a course on the use of Adobe Photoshop. I have already used photoshop, but hopefully I will be learning something a bit more sophisticated, so keep a look out for some of my efforts in the future. My friend Steve, who I work with at the School will be running the course, he is quite an accomplished photographer and uses all kinds of textures and effects in his photographs, some of which I think are absolutely amazing – check out his gallery here and for some of my feeble attempts, check out my gallery too.

So sorry about the heavy start to this post – I told you my moods are unpredictable, it’s called being a woman – it’s what keeps us entertaining, ha, ha, ha!!

Goodnight. Jo xx

LIFE OUT AND ABOUT

2006-09-12T21:36:00.000+01:00

I got really sidetracked on Sunday – I wanted to write about my lovely weekend and somehow it turned into a trip down memory lane – hey ho.

‘The boyfriend’ is really on form at the moment, although I am still possibly being a bit of a bitch – I can’t help it really!! He must really love me – because he took me to a place I have wanted to visit for a long time – Oxford.

I have read so much about the place and its customs, that when I arrived it was like coming home. I know this might sound stupid, but I actually felt quite emotional - firstly because my ‘lovely’ boyfriend had listened to me and secondly, because I had finally arrived.

Saturday was such a beautiful day, blue skies, swallows flitting about everywhere and a light breeze. It just so happened that there were loads of graduation ceremonies going on, so Oxford was buzzing with activity, the Oxford University graduates walking about in their robes with their families, who had arrived for their special day, excitedly chattering away and beaming proudly.

We walked for hours visiting loads of the College buildings, Magdelen (pronounced Maudlin), Balliol, Jesus, Christchurch, Trinity and so on – beautiful buildings with so much history.

We had a stroll in the Botanic Gardens and sat on a bench by the river, watching people punting up and down in their graduation robes and bumping into other punters – each time this happened they would shout “Sorry” in that very English way – it was hilarious.

We went to the oldest public museum in Britain ‘ The Ashmolean’, which although not a big museum in comparison to the British Museum, still houses a respectable collection of Roman and Egyptian artefacts, also a collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings and old European porcelain, to name but a few items.

I would have liked to stay there longer, but our boring humdrum world was calling us home, so home we went.

Sunday morning started much the same as the previous day, bright sunshine and blue skies. Today we were having Sunday dinner with my Dad – my sister (Palmers Green) was cooking roast pork and some vegetables and I offered to cook the roast potatoes (cooked in goose fat – delicious) and I also roasted a couple of chickens, oh and boiled/mashed some swede with black pepper and butter.

Originally it was only going to be my sister cooking lunch, but it ended up being a full scale family do, with my other sister, hubby and kids also turning up and then later on one of my brothers and his two young children arrived and joined in the feast. And it was a feast, as usual too much food was cooked, although I am pleased to say there was very little wastage – my mother has taught us well and we always leave a clean plate – not very good for the waistline!!

Food cooked for this day:

2 joints of pork
2 roast chickens
Roast potatoes
Swede
Sweetcorn
Peas
Carrots
Sage and onion stuffing
Yorkshire Puddings (we eat these with everything)

Desserts
Apple crumble
Bread and Butter Pudding
Hot Chocolate Fudge Cake
2 types of Ice Cream (Vanilla and Coffee)
Lemon Sorbet
Thick Double Cream

No I did not eat a bit of everything – I had a damn good try though!!

Yours bloatedly

Jo xx

PAST LIFE

2006-09-10T21:58:00.000+01:00

I’ve had quite a busy week this week and a very pleasurable week-end, I am content with my life as it is at present – ask me again next week and the answer might be the total opposite!!

My Mum and brother London Cabby have gone to Spain for a week – my parents own a couple of properties there – one inherited and one bought with an inheritance – lucky or what?? One of the properties is in ‘Torrevieja’ and the other is in a small place called ‘Las Palmeras’(THE PALMTREES), about half an hour’s drive from the city of ‘Valencia’.

SORRY ABOUT THE QUALITY OF THE PHOTOGRAPH IT'S THE ONLY ONE I COULD FIND!! THIS IS THE ONLY ROAD WHICH ENTERS AND LEAVES 'LAS PALMERAS'

Our family has been going to ‘Las Palmeras’ since we were children, in those days in the late nineteen sixties early seventies our whole family Mum, Dad, seven kids and a Granny, used to spend two stressful days of travelling, well for my parents it was stressful, for us kids it was just one bit adventure.

The epic journey started in Victoria Station - to Dover – we then got on the ferry to Calais or Boulogne. Once in France we got the Train to Paris - Gare du Nord - a taxi or bus ride to – Gare Austerlitz and then the Couchettes (sleeper) train all the way to Valencia.

This train journey took us through life and us kids soaked-up all the atmosphere like sponges - train stations flying by gave us fleeting glimpses of other peoples lives. There were stops on the Pyrenees’ border – Perpignan and Port Bou, where my Dad got out to buy us some bottled water (not so common in those days) and nearly missed the train - by the time he reached our carriage we were all wailing and grief stricken believing that we would never see our Father again. The train continued through the Pyrenees to Spain - usually by this time we would be fast asleep ‘ top to tail’ in each of our little narrow beds – when we awoke in the early morning we would be travelling along the coast of Spain catching glimpses of the Sapphire blue sea as the train bobbed along – passing again through little village stations with strange names.

One name, which always made me laugh, was ‘ Lavapies’, which literally means ‘Wash feet’!!

We made a brief stop at ‘Barcelona’, where some friends of my parents came to say ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ – well it was quite a short stop – and finally reaching our ultimate destination ‘Valencia’. Here my Grandparents ‘Yaya’ and ‘Yayo’ would be waiting for us, together with my Uncle Damaso and probably one of the town locals - big hugs and kisses and excited and very ‘LOUD’ chatter in Valenciano (the dialect). My Grandad would always have a large cigar hanging out of his mouth and with his booming voice would announce to anyone who would listen, that these were his grandchildren, who had travelled all the way from England to visit them – he was so proud of us.

THIS PHOTO IS NOT TOO GOOD EITHER, BUT YOU CAN JUST MAKE OUT MY GRANDAD'S CIGAR.

The final operation was a half an hour journey by car/van to our flat in ‘Las Palmeras’ – this was the journey’s end and where we would be spending the next two months of our lives.

FUN, FUN, FUN, ALL THE WAY!!

Hasta Mañana Folks!!

Jo XX

THE LIFE WE CHOOSE

2006-09-05T21:07:00.000+01:00

I’ve been back at work for two days now and boy am I tired. I have had 6 weeks of relative quiet and not really much to do but please myself. My body is in a state of shock and all I want to do is sleep.

My job is not physically demanding, but it sure is a strain on the brain.

EXAMPLE:

“Miss, where is room 28”?

“Up the stairs and to the left”

“Miss, where are the stairs”?

Games up really.

The most complaints I have heard today are about the new Government guidelines, which have been put into place in all School Kitchens/Canteens/Lunchrooms.

NO FIZZY DRINKS

NO CRISPS (POTATO CHIPS)

NO SWEETS AND CHOCOLATES

FRIED FOODS ONLY TWICE PER WEEK

These kids are almost in tears, when they are told that they can’t have their little fixes.

ABOUT BLOODY TIME TOO!! Kids all over the world are getting too fat, eating crappy food with empty calories – they are becoming obese, diabetics, with bad breath and body odour. I’m afraid we parents are to blame and I think this is a good kick up the bum, which hopefully will make us all think a bit more about what we shove down our children’s and our gobs (mouths).

Have you ever noticed how much children sprout over the Summer Holidays?? There was one little chap, who just before the holidays had trouble reaching the counter, all of a sudden in he walks, with a gaggle of giggling girls, who have suddenly decided that he something worth having - this due to the fact he has sprouted about a foot and his voice has become very manly. Oh to young and carefree again – NOT!!

Its my niece Katie’s Birthday tomorrow, she is San Diego with her brother, they have gone to visit their Mum, who lives out there. I know she will be having a really great day tomorrow and we all wish her a ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY’!! Birthday cards and money will be waiting for you at Yaya’s house, when you get back.

Well I’m off now for a bath and an early night, us old ladies really need our beauty sleep – although ‘the boyfriend’ would probably say, “ It ain’t working”!!

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu to you and you, and you and you and you.

Jo xx

THE GOOD LIFE

2006-09-01T15:13:00.000+01:00

These last few days, before I go back to work have been quite pleasant, for many reasons.

I am finally getting used to reading with my new glasses and amazed at the difference it makes to me – no more squinting and guessing at what the words might be saying.

My boyfriend (bless him) bought me a lovely watch by ‘Fossil’ its sweet and pink and girly with little charms hanging from it – my kind of watch. I asked him what I had done to deserve such a nice present – was it because I was a bitch to him or was it because of the suspenders, stockings and thigh length boots I had worn the previous evening?

The correct answer to this question is ‘Neither, it’s because I love you’. (Cute!!)

I finally managed to get to Woburn Abbey – a long promised visit for my Dad, who now doesn’t want to travel abroad since last year’s health scare. With my Dad and I, came my youngest son, my sister (Palmers Green) and her daughter and son – six of us in all.

It is a beautiful Estate, which has been open to the public since 1955, when the 13th Duke of Bedford came to live there after his father the 12th Duke had died. It had fallen into a terrible state, but with hard work and with much love it became the beautiful place it is today.
I have never seen so many types of Deer, just walking around without a care in the world; both the grounds and the Abbey/House itself are full of interesting sights. Including paintings from such artists as Canaletto, Van Dyke, Gainsborough, and Reynolds. Wonderful rooms full of porcelain, glassware, silverware and gold of all shapes, sizes and designs. I could go on, but if you ever get a chance you should see this all for yourself.

After the visit to Woburn, we went for lunch to a pub in Woburn Sands, called ‘The Swan’, where we had a marvellous lunch. I had:

Portobello Mushrooms, stuffed with Brie and Pancetta
Belly of Pork in a bbq applesauce, with rosemary sautéed new potatoes and fresh vegetables.

The portions were huge so I couldn’t manage a dessert and I even had to give some of my meal to my son (SHOCK HORROR)!!

Today I have been out to buy my son a birthday present; he will be 19 on Sunday. It is not going to be a surprise as he was with me at the time and he had to try it on for size. It is the new ‘Tottenham Hotspurs’ top, with his name and a number printed on the back. Needless to say he is ecstatic with his present and is wearing it as I speak/write!! To finish off our outing, we went to ‘Chiquitos’ for lunch, where we ate – AGAIN!!

Fiesta Nachos
Philly Steak Sandwich, with fries and salad

ALERT ALERT, ALIEN ALERT!!

I was going to go out later to run some errands, but the threat of the Alien trying to free itself from my stomach kept me at home – I need to digest – I will be a good girl tomorrow. Ha Ha!!

Whilst I was out shopping in Brent Cross today, I went into W.H.Smith to buy some Academic Year Diaries for both the libraries and decided that I would buy a copy of ‘The Dangerous Book for Boys’ by Conn and Hal Iggulden – this is a great book, with loads of information and ideas on things that boys and even girls would like to do/make/see/discover. It covers such varied subjects as compass reading, crystal making, life saving, go-cart making, star gazing and so on. It is laid out in an old fashioned way, which obviously appeal to the boy in the man, but it will also I think attract the younger boys possibly because it has ‘Dangerous and Boys’ in the title.

Normal retail price for this book is £18.99, which is quite a hefty price. However, I got two copies – one for £13.99 and the second one for half-price £7.00!! I do love a bargain. My boys are already looking at it and deciding if they should try to make a go-cart or something else. By the way, Conn Iggulden, was my son’s English Teacher a couple of years ago and he was a very good teacher – it was a sad day when he left the school for fame and fortune – Good Luck to him!!

All this good living has made me feel like I don’t want to go back to school on Tuesday, but I suppose I have to earn a living somehow, before the seven deadly sins take a hold of my life.

Vade retro Satana (Get behind me Satan) from Conn & Hal Iggulden’s book.

Jo xx

AN HONOURABLE LIFE

2006-08-27T14:23:00.000+01:00

I have not really been much in the mood for writing lately, for several reasons:

I haven’t felt inspired

I have been doing other stuff

My eyes were going all blurry every time I used the computer.

My eye problem has been resolved and I now have a brand spanking new pair of glasses/spectacles, which cost me £189!! This was an expense I could have done without, but then these things always happen when you are looking for money. I am still getting used to them and keep forgetting that I can’t walk around wearing them, as the floor disconcertingly appears to be waving and bubbling as I walk - they are only for reading and the computer. Hurray, I can read without squinting!!

The other stuff I have been doing is, trying and failing to do a Car Boot Sale with my Mum, delivering junk mail – in the pouring rain, still clearing out my attic (It’s a big attic!!) and spending quality time with my boyfriend. The boyfriend has been driving around members of the Saudi Royal Family for the past month. These people don’t expect anyone in their employ to have a normal family life and have you at their beck and call 24 hours a day. Sorry this is just not my thing and you couldn’t pay me enough to not want to spend time with my family – well maybe if I knew it was for a short time, like a month and they paid me a cool million, I might……???? Well I am only human!!

I have been an utter bitch to the boyfriend recently and thought that I should make amends and be extra nice to him. Don’t ask me why I treat him this way, I just do. These bitchy moods don’t last long and he must really love me, because he always forgets that I have treated him badly. ……until the next time. Ha Ha!!

I have been reading my brother’s blog (LONDON CABBY) today and I suppose it was reading his blog, which inspired me to write something.

He writes about one of his passengers a young Asian woman.

“ I picked up a very pretty lady of Asian origin. It looked like she had been out on the town and had a great evening. She had on very trendy and modern clothes and had make-up on although she probably never needed it. By the time we got to her destination a totally different girl got out of the cab and paid me at the window. Gone were all the trendy clothes and gone was all the make-up. In front of me stood a fully kitted out Muslim woman with mask who was probably going into a very strict house where her Muslim parents or a Muslim husband awaited her”

Britain is proud of it’s multi-cultural population and embraces the differences. This is all well and good, but when the differences oppress the rights of women, their rights to make choices and to live their lives without fear of violence or of being ostracized or even murdered, by their families then those differences are to be criticised and something should be done to educate/punish those involved. These so called ‘Honour Killings’ are nothing to do with honour and everything to do with oppression and taking away the right to choose.

People that come to this country want everything good this country has to offer, education, health service and housing. They send their children, boys and girls, to school to be educated in the Western way and to learn about Western customs. These children struggle with their desires to learn about their adopted country and to intergrate themselves with their peers and they also battle with their desire to make their parents/family proud and preserve the customs and culture from their native countries. Suddenly, when their children reach a marriagable age, these very same people go against everything they have let them learn and demand that they suddenly embrace a way of life, which has become alien to them.

The liberal do-gooders in positions of power, in this country, are frightened to do anything about this problem for fear of upsetting a minority of the population who are committing legalised murder. There is nothing honourable in murder!!

LIFE LAUNDRY # 2

2006-08-20T21:31:00.000+01:00

It’s been a funny old week – I am still in my Life Laundry mode i.e. cleaning out unnecessary items from my house/life. The attic is looking a whole lot better and I have now managed to clear out at least 10 black bin bags full of clutter, old newspapers and magazines, broken dolls, teddy bears and jigsaw puzzles with bits missing out of the box.

I came across some of the elder son’s schoolbooks from when he was 4 years old; in one of them he had written a story about Michael Jackson. My son absolutely adored Michael Jackson and sang all his songs and watched all his videos. He even got to see him in one of his Concerts in Wembley in 1988!! I thought I would take a picture of his story - who would have known what would happen 20 odd years later!!!

Still up in the attic I came across a Dinky Toy of an Eagle Transporter, which was one of the spacecraft in Space 1999 and series, which I loved to watch in the 70’s. It was a bit battered, so I thought no one is going to want to buy this – how wrong I was – I looked on eBay (flavour of the moment) and found to my astonishment, that these items are quite sought after and even in the state mine was in I could still get around £10 for it!!

I have been a bit obsessed with eBay lately, this is mainly due to having a cash flow problem – no cash is flowing anywhere in my life at the moment. Some cash is coming in from some sales of items, especially some Star Wars toys, which I was hoping to keep for my old age – well obviously this is my old age at 46!! I always thought things got easier the older you get, but maybe I read it in one of my fantasy books, which I love to read – escapism don’t you know!!

Talking about reading – I haven’t done that much of it lately – this is due to the fact that I can’t seem to focus on the writing on the page. I realised about two weeks ago that my eyesight was deteriorating; of course I was in denial for the whole of those two weeks, when I suddenly had an epiphany. If I couldn’t do the thing that I love most (well apart from eating and having sex) would my life be worth living. NO!! So I made an appointment for the optician, and I am, as I write this post waiting for my glasses to be made/prepared, so that I can pick up a book and read it without getting all frustrated and headachy. I am going to look like a proper librarian now, with my pile of books and my specs.

Today I had a very pleasant afternoon at a friend’s house in Harrow. Her daughter is off to the U.S.A to study American Studies for one year at a University - I am not quite sure which one it is although they did tell me. My friend had a farewell bbq for her and there were loads of her friends from Uni there, including her housemates who were all hungover from a heavy night out, last night. The bbq was stupendous and as usual I have eaten too much, although I didn’t try everything. Only the things in red:

Burgers
Sausages
Spare Ribs
Veggie Kebabs (for the vegetarians)
Chicken Kebabs
Salad
Baked Stuffed potatoes with cheese & butter
Roasted Rosemary & Olive Oil new potatoes
Dips and Crisps

For dessert:

Chocolate Fudge Cake
Profiteroles
Strawberries and Cream
Baked Bananas with Chocolate

The last item Baked Bananas, were absolutely scrumptious – very simple recipe:

Take one Banana
Keeping the skin on, split it lengthways – don’t cut all the way through
Stuff the split with pieces of chocolate, whichever kind you like
Wrap in tin foil
Put on bbq for about 10 minutes
Open carefully (very hot!!) put on a plate
Eat with a bit of cream

OH MY GOD – I THINK I HAVE DIED AND GONE TO HEAVEN!!!

What a lovely way to end the day.

Jo xx

MAYBE IT'S BECAUSE I'M A LONDONER

2006-08-15T10:06:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I spent several hours trudging around Bayswater, Queensway and Westbourne Grove delivering silly little cards!! It was drizzly and humid - my feet were aching, and my back was aching and my arm was aching and it was a bloody long morning!!

Today – well this morning actually – I have spent a pleasant hour or so, browsing other people’s blogs. I know I have mentioned in the past how much I really love the city I live in London – so I have been looking at blogs about London, with all its beauties and all its quirkiness.

I have added the following to my Blogroll:

Londondailyphoto.blogspot
Londonunderground.blogspot

And to my Links:

Londonist.com

Check these out if you want to find out loads more about London and its inhabitants. I especially enjoyed the candid shots of people on the Underground/tube and their fashion faux pas – great stuff!!

Looking at these blogs has inspired me to get out and do a bit of sightseeing this week, hopefully the weather will improve somewhat. It’s not so much the rain as the lack of light, which is depressing. I hope at least the sun peeps out - everything looks so much better with a bit of sunlight.

Not really in the mood for much today, although I might try giving my bedroom a bit of a makeover. The carpet needs ripping up and the walls need a lick of paint – what I really need is a new bed – I’ve had this one since 1979 and the springs are beginning to fight their way out – this is probably the reason my back is aching most of the time!!

OK, I’m not really much in a mood for posting either so this has been a short one.

See ya!!

Jo xx

LIFE' S RICH TAPESTRY

2006-08-12T19:41:00.000+01:00

Someone up there sure doesn’t like me at the moment and just to put a cap on his or her disapproval, the heavens opened and I was drenched!!

This morning I got up at 5am, having gone to bed around midnight – I had been washing and ironing and folding and packing stuff to take to the car boot sale today – I may as well not have bothered. The grand total for the morning’s takings was £7.00!! I kid you not – my mum and I arrived at Aldenham Country Park around 6.30am and by 9am I was back at home feeling just a bit sorry for myself (boo hoo).

To cheer/warm myself up I made myself a nice Bacon, Tomato and Mayonnaise toasted sandwich and a big mug of Coffee – DELIGHTFUL!! Just what a body needs when the endorphin levels are down – a good chunk of Chocolate can help too – but I didn’t have any of that in the house, so I had to make do.

When I am feeling a bit peed off, I tend to pick up a book to read or do a crossword puzzle, today I have done both. I tried doing the Cryptic Puzzle in the Evening Standard, which isn’t really that difficult, but my brain wasn’t really in cryptic mode, so I thought I would read my book instead.

I have already mentioned that I started to read ‘Bend Sinister’ by Nabokov – I am still finding it a little difficult to get into, so I also have ‘My Name is Red’ by Orhan Pamuk and ‘Acorna’s Rebels’ by Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, on the go.

The former is to read in my bed and the latter to read in my living room. The Anne McCaffrey book is one in the ‘Acorna’ series about a girl who is a mixture of unicorn and humanoid with special powers – I have mentioned before, that I really enjoy this author’s work as she is very descriptive and I find her style of writing very easy to read – Sometimes you don’t want anything too heavy.

I forgot to tell you that last Saturday ‘The Boyfriend’ finally wrenched himself away from work and took me out for a meal. We went to a Turkish restaurant in 80-82 Great Titchfield Street, London, W1, called ‘Efes’. It also has a takeaway section right next door to the restaurant, which is popular with the London Cabbies. I am sure my brother London Cabby knows this place really well - they make great kebabs and as you might know if you read his blog HE SURE DOES LOVE A KEBAB!!

We ate exceedingly well and had the following:

STARTERS/MEZE:

Prawn Cocktail
Hummus
Tzatziki (or whatever the Turkish equivalent is)
Taramosalata
Some other Fishy dip
Hot Cheesey pastries
Hot Liver in a crunchy coating (I DON’T LIKE LIVER)

MAIN COURSE

Lamb Cutlets
Mixed Kebab – Lamb Cutlets, Kofta Kebab, Doner Kebab & Shish Kebab (Boyfriend’s meal)
Rice
Salad

DESSERT

Baklava (sticky pastries with honey and walnut filling)

I also had three dry Martini and Lemonades!! I don’t normally drink as it goes straight to my head, but as I had eaten so much it didn’t affect me in the normal way.

All the above including drinks for ‘The Boyfriend’ came to £50!! Not bad for Central London.

I LOVE GOING TO EAT AND NOT HAVING TO PAY MY WAY.

Gosh talking about all this food has made me hungry again.

Got to go and eat something.

Auf Wiedersehen

Jo xx

LIFE IS FOR LIVING # 2

2006-08-11T09:31:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was a bit of mad day here in London Town. It started off with all the airports suddenly closing down – no flights going anywhere and hardly any flights coming in.

Terror Attack – plot foiled!! That was the word from the TV and Newspapers.

I am preaching peace and love today check out this website for information on The International Day of Peace - 21 September 2006.

What I don’t understand is the hysteria that accompanies these events – not the ordinary people, but the security forces.

You can only carry the following onto a plane:

Your keys
Your passport and tickets
A small change purse or loose money
Sanitary items for women (not boxed)

All this must be carried in a clear plastic bag.

If you have a baby and wish to take on their bottle, you must taste the milk in front of the security people to prove that it is milk – you may also take wipes and nappies (which are probably not checked for explosives).

Women are going hysterical because they cannot take on their handbags with all their make-up and other weird and wonderful things that women carry in their capacious sacks - poor dears (she said dripping with sarcasm).

MI5 is our country’s security service, they received information that a terror attempt was imminent and that the explosives would be in a liquid form, so anything resembling a liquid item is barred from being carried through the security checkpoints, but who is to say that when you have passed through the security gates that these explosive cannot be bought in a Duty Free Shop or Pharmacy or any other shop in the airport – how much checking can be done and for how long are these measures going to be in place?

I do applaud and appreciate everything that is implemented for our safety, but believe that no matter how much security is put in place, it will always be the random element that perpetrates the atrocity. No one can work out the random element, because if we could, then most of the suicide bombers/bombers would not have been successful and many people who have lost their lives would have been saved.

What happens when one of these events occur is that suddenly everyone is a suspect, especially if your skin is a darker shade of pale – white people can be Muslim too you know – is our life to be governed by fear and suspicion - I hope not.

**********************************************

The following is an example of how illogical people can be when they are frightened, it is an exerpt from The Mirror Newspaper.

5 April 2006
AIR TERROR ALERT OVER CLASH HIT
By Jeremy Armstrong

AN ASIAN salesman was hauled off a plane as a suspected terrorist because he was listening to The Clash song London Calling.
Harraj Mann, 24, was quizzed for three hours by Special Branch after his taxi driver overheard the lyrics, which include the lines "war is declared and battle come down".
The mobile phone seller, from Hartlepool, said: "I got a taxi to Teesside Airport and it had one of those things that plugs into your music player.

"I played Procol Harum, Whiter Shade of Pale first, which the taxi man liked.
"I figured he liked the classics, so I put on Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song. Then, since I was going to London I played The Clash and finished up with Nowhere Man by The Beatles.
"He didn't like Led Zeppelin or The Clash but I don't think there was any need to tell the police."
Durham police said: "By the time it was established the man did not pose a security risk, the plane had taken off."

*********************************************

Things are not completely back to normal today, but at least flights are getting out with some delays – better to be safe than sorry. I have been asked in the past by family members from Spain if I am frightened of travelling after these things have happened and I always reply ‘are you frightened of crossing the road or getting out of your bath/shower at home’, bad things can happen anywhere and at anytime and you can’t and shouldn’t live your life in fear of losing it.

Life is for living – enjoy it while you can.

There endeth the lesson.

Jo xx

STREET LIFE

2006-08-08T09:09:00.000+01:00

I am in a bit of a slump at the moment – everything seems to be going wrong – my plans for World domination in the eBay category, have gone sadly awry. Out of 27 items I have put up for sale a grand total of two have actually sold!

Total income from sales:

£10.50

Total outgoings ie. eBay fees:

£14.30

Total Profit:

Minus £3.80

My banking situation is no better – for some reason, which I don’t understand – I have no money left in my account – this is not good – the bank has refused to honour several Direct Debits and has charged me a total of £156 in charges putting me further into the RED. WHY? WHY?

Never to be downhearted for too long, I hopefully will be doing a Car Boot Sale this weekend, which will make my Mum ecstatic as she has been begging me to do a Car Boot Sale with her for ages. I have so much stuff to get rid of I don’t know where to start, but I will probably just grab hold of the nearest stuff and shove it in my car boot – fingers and toes crossed for me please – I need to do well, otherwise selling my sad, saggy and tired old body could become a horrible option!!

Yesterday, I helped out an old friend delivering leaflets (junk mail) door to door – or ‘killing trees’, as my friend Steve calls it. I used to do this years ago, when my children were younger and still at school. It was a good way to socialise, keep-fit and earn a bit of cash. I worked with a couple of other people and we used to cover whole areas of London – some really nice parts, such as Belgravia, Knightsbridge, Chelsea and Kensington and some not so nice parts like Kilburn, Wembley and Harlesden. Yesterday was a nice part and we worked all around South Kensington and Knightsbridge, including around the back of Harrods, Trevor Square, which is a pretty little London square and Montpelier Square and adjoining mews, beautiful little streets. Although it was drizzling first thing in the morning and it was very humid, it was still enjoyable to walk through our lovely little back streets and see a bit of life.

This picture below is of one side of Trevor Square, there is a lovely garden in the middle of the square, which is not in the shot.

Whilst we were out yesterday I saw the Actor Michael Gambon famous for Professor Dumbledore in Harry Potter and The Singing Detective. He was strolling along Montpelier Square minding his own business – he is a very good actor – but he has got massive bags under his eyes!! I was shocked at his appearance and thought he looked completely worn-out – and no I didn’t speak to him or ask him for his autograph – I don’t do starstruck – even though I was a bit!!

We had a lovely tea break at Zanelli’s Sandwich Bar on the corner of Old Brompton Road and Gloucester Road. They only have one table to sit at – it is a tiny place – but they make the best sandwiches! I had a Chicken Escalope on brown bread, with cucumber and mayonnaise and a small latte – lovely coffee too! By the way if you are ever in London and near Harrods, there is a wonderful patisserie called ‘Valerie’s Patisserie’ which you should visit. They have a restaurant at the back, with great looking and polite waiters, who will serve you a variety of specials, sandwiches and best of all wonderful cakes. The prices are not too expensive and it’s a great place to go to for a nice lunch in genial surroundings. Have a look at their speciality cakes, they are fabulous!

As usual I have digressed and diverted on to my favourite topic of food, but since some of my readers have expressed an interest in my eating habits I don’t think I will have too many complaints.

I am off now to do some tidying-up – I have a visitor coming over later at around 3pm and I like the house to look clean and tidy – he is an old work colleague who has come over from Ghana to visit family and friends and he asked if he could pop round for a quick visit – he is about the same age as my elder son and he is a lovely guy – a bit lazy sometimes – but that’s boys for you!!

I am a bit achey today after all the exercise yesterday, I am definitely getting old!!

Creak, creak (that’s my aching joints waving goodbye to you.

Jo xx

SUMMER TIME AND THE LIVING IS EASY

2006-08-03T19:29:00.000+01:00

I am finally enjoying my holidays!

The weather has cooled down considerably, which for me is a gift from up above.

I have managed to clear out a load of crap from the house.

My elder son has decided that it is impossible for him to ever have enough money to put a deposit down on a house and has decided to spend money on the one he lives in here and now. This is great for me as I don’t have any money to spend on the house and loads of things need doing.

The first thing he has bought – not a necessity – but nonetheless wanted – is a Philips 32 inch, Flat Screen, LCD, HD ready TV – definitely a man thing! See image below.

I can’t get used the Wide screen function and am amazed at how huge it makes even the skinniest woman’s bottom seem. Elle (the body) McPherson is on an episode of ‘Friends’ and her bum looks massive!! I dread to think how big a normal woman’s behind would look on this and do all the models and film stars know about this, it would certainly make these frail insecure creatures even more self-conscious!!

My son said he would like to get the bathroom done first – we have really bad taps (faucets), which constantly drip and are really difficult to turn. He would like to buy a power shower or something similar – it would be lovely to have a normal shower instead of the dribble that flops out of the showerhead now.

I went to visit my Mum and Dad yesterday evening – my Dad is going in to have a small operation on Friday in Moorfield’s Eye Hospital in Central London, he is having his cataracts done and having a plastic drain (or something) removed from a previous op. My Dad has also been told that he will have to start Dialysis treatment soon as his kidneys are failing, so we had a bit of a chat about how he felt about this and I am glad to say that he was quite upbeat about it – but then considering what he has been through this past year I am not surprised that he takes everything in his stride.

Just as I was about to leave for home, my Mum gave me a mask, which she bought in a Car Boot Sale – for – you guessed it 50p!! She does love a bargain and this one is for me, as I have a small collection of masks from around the World, which I really enjoy finding in flea markets and boot sales. Here is a picture of it and some other pictures of masks around my home and even my garden!!

Today, my sister (Palmers Green) invited me and my son for lunch – she did invite another of my sisters, who wasn’t feeling well and my brother London Cabby, who was still asleep in bed at 1pm (well he was working during the night) – he was a bit miffed that he was missing out on a Lunch, which he didn’t have to cook. I am going to make him more jealous now and show you a couple of photos, which I took of part of the meal.

We had:

Delicious pasta made with minced beef and cherry tomatoes and a lovely sauce.

A beautiful Salad, made with Lettuce, Cucumber, Beef Tomatoes, Peppers, Hard Boiled Eggs, Tuna Fish and Olives.

A small but tasty potato omelette

Garlic Bread

Ciabatta Bread

We were going to have Chicken Fajitas, which my sister had already prepared, but we were so full that I took them home for our evening meal.

For dessert we had a favourite of mine, Pear and Chocolate Torte with whipped Cream. (Sorry about the empty plate, I had to eat it quickly before it got cold – honestly).

My eBay sales are not going too well – out of 21 items I have so far only sold one item, which will probably cover the spending for the insertion of the sales with a little bit left over. I am still optimistic that I will make some decent money as with further research on Star Wars items, I have discovered that I have several rare pieces, which could go for as much as £20 for one figure – I live in hope – well I live in Dollis Hill actually – but you know what I mean!

That’s enough for today.

Vaya con Dios amigos.

Jo xx

LIFE LAUNDRY

2006-07-31T22:24:00.000+01:00

You may have noticed in my last posting, that I have the cleaning bug. Yesterday I decided I would tackle the attic, I have quite a big attic, it is choc full of stuff, shstoof, tings, cosas, things!! After several hours of clearing out old Christmas cards (circa. 1987), old suitcases, which don't close and holdalls, which don't hold anything, I realised that my huge wheelie bin (as supplied by Brent Council) was full!!

I really wanted to find some Star Wars stuff that I have hidden away for a rainy day (I'm a poet and I didn't know it!!). I have hidden the Star Wars stuff so well, I can't find it, I wanted to sell it on eBay as my financial situation is reaching critical point!!

The above photo is of a Critical Point, which is where I am at in my life(financially) - I have no idea where in the Universe the above Critical Point is - it just is.

Brent Council emptied my bin today, so I thought I would give the attic a miss and tackle my room. How much rubbish can one person accumulate in a lifetime, well in 20 years anyway?

I have thrown away:

Four battered handbags
Ten pairs of old (and I mean old) shoes
Twenty pairs of laddered tights (pantyhose)
And at least Thirty assorted half used cosmetics, including lipsticks in various colours, blue, green, red, rose, poncho pink and coral orange!!

I still couldn't bring myself to throw away, paintings that my sons had drawn when they were around 5 years old and macaroni Mother's day cards, oh and an unusual story about 'KILLER TOASTERS'!!

I have filled the bin up again, so I think I will have to make a trip to the dump with some of it, otherwise it will be overflowing by next Monday.

The time arrived to eat, I thought I would make some Spaghetti Bolognese for dinner tonight, it's my boy's favourite, unfortunately I didn't have much mince meat left, so I had to supplement this with some chopped up bacon (NOT BAD), I used loads of onion and garlic too, but that's how we like it. A bit stinky, but delicious!!!

I have managed to put a few items on eBay for sale, one of them, a Star Wars graphic novel has already had six bids, no bids for any of the others though. I have everything crossed that I sell at least half of them, that would be so lovely.

Last night,I finished my book '26a' by Diana Evans, I did enjoy it, but it was very sad, I won't say anymore, but I really don't understand what makes people do the things they do, but then I suppose I am quite sane, so it helps. Maybe my madness takes the form of hoarding useless bits of the past, who knows??

Do You?

Jo xx

A WOMAN'S WORK IS NEVER DONE!!

2006-07-29T17:18:00.000+01:00

Today I have been cleaning the ‘Pit’ that is my younger son’s room – I don’t normally tidy his room as I try to encourage him to do this himself – FAT CHANCE!!

It has taken me nearly three hours, to sift through:

Mountains of clean and dirty clothes,
Football boots – caked with mud, smelly old trainers,
Reams of old schoolwork – I’m amazed at the amount of work he has actually produced!!
Old copies of Nuts magazine – don’t ask??
DVDs/Videos/Computer Games/CDs – all out of their covers.

I have:

Cleaned the windows,
Washed the floor,
Vacuumed under the bed and behind the furniture,
Folded and neatly put away all his clean clothes
Put all his paperwork in files.

He will arrive home later on this evening around 7pm, after a day’s work at Tesco stores in Brent Park (he works one day per week) – after approximately one hour, I will go into his room and it will probably look like a bomb has hit it – WHY DO I BOTHER??? It does, however, give me no end of satisfaction to know that I have cleaned the room from top to toe, regardless of its state. Yes I am a very strange person.

Whilst I was cleaning my son’s room, I have been listening to the Best of Dire Straits and the Best of David Bowie – good cleaning tunes!!

I have been practising a bit lately with my camera – well I do have a lot of time on my hands – and have been messing about with Photoshop effects, here are a couple of my efforts – bear in mind I am still a novice at this, so no cruel remarks – only positive criticism will be accepted!

This one is a close up of some flowers, which I planted last year and they have come up again this year – I really like the hairy bits!!

This next one is of a miniature pansy, which is next to a green glazed pot also in my garden – it is so delicate.

I do like taking pictures of Roses and this one is of a rosebud from some climbing roses, which are against the wall of my garden.

This last one is of the flowering part of a Fennel plant, I grow quite a few herbs in my garden, and they are about the only things I don’t kill!! I took the photo close-up and took out the background using Photoshop, it was a bit fiddly but I quite like the final look.

I did mention that I had started to read Nabokov’s ‘Bend Sinister’ well I have temporarily given up on it and have started to read a book by Diana Evans called ‘26A’. It is a story about a set of twins and their life. It is set in and around 'Neasden/Gladstone Park' which is where I live and Nigeria. I was quite enjoying reading it, when I foolishly read a review, which has kind of spoiled it for me – but I will carry on to the end as I really want to know, how and why things happen – don’t read any reviews if you don’t want to know what happens – blooming spoilsports!!

Well I am off now to watch our new 32inch LCD Flat Screen HD ready to use TV, bought today by my elder son, with some of his hard earned cash – he’s not a bad boy really, although sometimes he can be a bit of a crank, but nobody’s perfect – except me maybe?? No I’m joking, ha ha,(in English) je je (in Spanish)!!

Jo xx

FAMILY LIFE

2006-07-27T11:01:00.000+01:00

‘You can never have enough friends’ is something I have heard people say for years, and it is true, it is wonderful to have friends, but a true friend is someone who is there for you, without actually having to be there.

My family are my ready made friends – I don’t have to be with them every day, but sometimes when you need a little lift, you can invite yourself for dinner, you can have a family bbq and air your opinions, you can just sit in each other’s company not saying a word, but still understanding each other - this is not to say that we are always in total agreement – we are all strong characters in my family – thanks to our Mum and Dad.

This photo of Mum and Dad was taken around 20 years ago.

Dad has always taught us to question everything and find out things for ourselves - he taught us to appreciate music, art and literature - he has showed us how to be independent and make our own ways in the world - he is honest and hardworking - he is supportive of us when we have ideas to better ourselves - he can be stubborn at times (a characteristic most of us in our family have) - he is happiest when surrounded by his family - he loves laughter and was always trying to make us laugh as children (jumping about in his Y fronts with a colander on his head!!) - he is the font of all knowledge and he is a wonderful Father and Grandfather to his 7 Children and 13 Grandchildren.

Mum has always been the practical one - a bit of a worrier - always trying to save a penny here and a pound there - she has showed us how to cope with every day life - how to cook and clean - how to make do and not be wasteful - she has a thirst for life and loves nothing better than to sing one of her favourite Conchita Piquer or Maria Dolores Pradera songs, whilst cooking a family favourites such as Paella or Pollo en pepitoria (Chicken in a peanut and peppercorn sauce) – she writes beautiful Spanish poetry, full of her love for her hometown Sueca and her childhood dreams and she is the world’s best person to listen to your problems when you are a bit down.

When I hear about other people’s relationships with their families I am thankful that I have been born into a close and loving family and am sad that some will never know the pleasure and comfort this brings.

The photo above was taken about 20 years ago, when we were all younger and slimmer.

It’s too hot and I have too much time to sit and think about stuff, but my sentiments are genuine.

STOP ALL THE WARS
STOP ALL THE FIGHTING
LOVE AND RESPECT EACH OTHER
TOLERATE EACH OTHER’S DIFFERENCES
ENJOY YOUR LIFE

Peace and Love Jo xx

A Life of Food

2006-07-24T20:53:00.000+01:00

What did I say about low cholesterol diet? Well that’s kind of gone out of the window for the time being. I have been eating rubbish since Friday, which was the Staff bbq on the last day of school. Food on offer at the bbq included:

Barbecued Lamb Steaks
Barbecued Chicken Tikka
Vegetable Curry
Ratatouille
Pasta Salad
Potato Salad
Tomato, Onion and Mozzarella Salad
French Bread

I tried a little (honestly) of everything, but still ended up feeling bloated, so much so, that a rush to the lavatory was necessary – no, imperative!! TMI! (Too much information)

The following day wasn’t too bad and as only my younger son and myself was at home I decided to cook something a little healthier. We ate:

Stir fried breast of chicken, marinated in olive oil, garlic, soy sauce and honey, and stir-fried with onions, mushrooms and sugar snap peas and served on a bed of boiled white rice – quite healthy – don’t you think?

Sunday started off ok, but we had a family Christening (again!) and after the church service, we all went to the Elgin pub in Elgin Avenue, W9. This used to be one of those old fashioned British pubs full of unsavoury characters. The unsavoury characters can still be found – sitting on the wall opposite the pub, drinking cans of Special Brew – the pub itself is now a type of Gastro pub – catering for families and serving bar snacks all day.

We had:

Huge bowls of Beef Nachos, covered in cheese, salsa, guacamole, sour cream and chillies.

Deep fried Haloumi cheese served with a redcurrant sauce

Houmous and pitta bread

Steak Sandwiches with Horseradish sauce and Chips

Extra bowls of Chips

I am seriously worried about my bodily functions as about an hour after I had eaten, I felt that sudden urge that makes me feel like my womb is falling out – not a pretty picture!!

Today my two sister and I were invited to lunch, by my mum, she made:

Two types of Arroz al horno (rice cooked in the oven)

The first one has morcillas- a type of black Spanish sausage, normal English chipolatas, bacon, slices of potato, chickpeas, slices of tomato and cloves of garlic cooked in the oven with saffron rice.

The second only has chickpeas, potatoes, sultanas and cloves of garlic – with the rice.

Both of them are delicious and are a family favourite.

My sister bought dessert, which was a hot pear and chocolate tart, served with thick double cream.

SCRUMPTIOUS!

About an hour after eating, I suddenly felt the urge to leave, no guesses as to my destination. I am a bit like homing pidgeon, when it comes to my personal habits – there’s no place like home.

I have decided that I will be taking my Dad out for a trip to Woburn Abbey, it’s straight up the M1, which is just up the road from me.

I have never been there before so I am quite looking forward to the trip, but it will have to be after my Dad has had his little op., not quite sure whether it’s for his hernia or for his cataracts, but at least he has something to look forward to.

No photos today, my computer is not playing - I might add them on later.

Success, I added the above photos at 12.35 pm on 26th July.

Happy eating

Jo xx

IF

2006-07-22T13:38:00.000+01:00

If I had gone right instead of left.

If I had gone up instead of down.

If I had said 'yes' instead of 'no'.

If we could see into the future, would our choices be the same or different and would making different choices actually make a difference?

These questions and many more have been argued upon since the beginning of time.

In my life - would going to Lyon (France) to be an Au-pair at the age of 18 years have made my life anymore interesting or exciting. It certainly could have been more interesting, but the fact remains, we don’t know.

I met my husband, that was, at the age of 17, whilst still attending school. He wasn’t really my type of guy, being a little rough around the edges – we hit it off just the same.

We married two years later at the age of 19 (both of us) – people told us not to do it – I kind of wished I had listened - I made my decision and I stuck to it.

Two kids and 20 years later we divorced.

The constant drinking and romancing of anything in skirts finally drove me to decide enough was enough!

I still loved him though!!!

Three years later he died of a brain haemorrhage, caused by high-blood pressure and aggravated by his lifestyle. Keeping up with all the young ladies he seemed to attract, was what really took him in the end.

If I had gone to Lyon at 18 - would I have met him?

If I had not married him - would I now have two wonderful sons?

If I had not divorced him - would he still be alive now??

If I knew these answers before they happened, would I have changed anything?

Who knows – not I?

I am content with my life as it is now. I have my family and friends for company, when I need company.

I have two wonderful boys, who could possibly start their own lives apart from me and their own families at any time.

I have a home, where I am warm in the winter and cool in the summer and where I feel safe and happy - what more could I need?

If you concentrate on what you have and not what you have-not and forget all the 'ifs' perhaps it can make life easier to cope with.

After all what is life – but ‘le if’

Philosophy lecture over, normal service will be resumed at next posting.

Jo xx

Asi es la vida!! That's Life!!

2006-07-19T19:00:00.000+01:00

Only two more days to go and I will be finishing work for the Summer – Yippee!!

In Alice Cooper’s immortal words “School’s out for Summer”.

Since I am a bit boracic (skint) at the moment and I have a holiday planned to New York in October, I have to find some way of getting some money, dosh, spondulix together.

There are several options:

1. My mother’s beloved car boot sales

2. Ebay selling

3. Selling my ageing and sagging body (not really an option)!!

I do have quite a few good things to sell on ebay:

1. Star Wars Vintage figures – I have around 60

2. A stack of comics – collectible I am told

3. Some antique items, including a Victorian Solid Silver Chatelaine (housewife’s belt)

4. Approximately 1000 Science fiction/fantasy paperbacks

That should be a good start or hopefully a good end if I sell everything for the price I want. All this should pay for:

The Radio City apartment, which has already been booked, but not paid for.

1. Some of my Credit Card debt.

2. Some of my debt to my mother.

3. Some of my debt to my son

4. Some spending money for New York

5. A booze cruise (day trip to Boulogne,France) in September

I am eternally optimistic and will turn my hand to anything to earn a bit of cash, so this summer should be quite busy.

I have finished reading ‘Beloved’ by Toni Morrison – a beautifully written book, strange to our modern eyes, but ordinary to the people that lived those lives. It’s not an easy read as it is quite poetic in parts and needs to be read over in parts to make sure you have read correctly. I can understand why it received the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature.

I have just picked up ‘Bend sinister’ by Vladimir Nabokov, don’t ask me what it’s about yet, coz I don’t know!! It was written in 1945/46 and was his first novel written in America – Russia being his homeland. His most well known work and possibly his most controversial is ‘Lolita’ which I am sure most of you well read people have heard of???

I have picked up a pile of books from my school library to try and read over the Summer holidays – will keep you posted on my progress.

Since my Dad was critically ill last year in Spain, he has decided that he never wants to leaved England’s shores again!! He would, however, enjoy trips out to Stately homes, Castles and other places of Historic, Botanic and any other ics you can think of. To this end he has already been taken out to Warwick Castle, by my sister Anna and her Husband Tim and to Waddesdon Manor by my brother Joseph and his wife Cathy.

I think I might take him to the newly re-furbished Kew Palace in the grounds of Kew Gardens or possibly Canterbury – don’t really know yet.

Well I have gabbed on enough, I’m off to make our evening meal of grilled steak and salad and a baked potato with lashings of butter for my youngest (chubby) son.

35 degrees today here in London, the roads are melting, there is still a hosepipe ban, my Mum & Dad haven’t had a water supply for the past 24 hours as there is a burst water main in their road. This is civilisation!!

All hail to progress??

Jo xx

HOME SWEET HOME

2006-07-15T11:07:00.000+01:00

I realise how much I miss home, when I return. It’s not so much the big things, but the little things in life, that certainly make a difference.

My pillow

My bath

My couch

My kitchen. I especially miss my kitchen!

I have spent all week eating mostly bread and chips, or frites as the Belgians call them. I am feeling incredibly bloated and I have missed my own – Toilet!!

After 8 and a half hours on the coach we arrived from Namur in Belgium yesterday afternoon at 5.40pm, two hours later than we should have. The traffic jams on the M25 were horrendous and the London traffic was no better – why are there so many cars on the roads??

We returned on two coaches, which included:

92 Children

10 Staff

2 Coach drivers

I hope we will never take so many away again, the logistics for moving this amount of students everyday was a nightmare!

We stayed in a youth hostel, situated next to the River Meuse in Namur. It took nearly two hours to sort out who would be sleeping in which room. It was really too small for the amount of people and some of the students had to sleep on mattresses in very cramped rooms. The dining room was too small for all of us, so we had to have two sittings for every meal, which was a nightmare, since we had to do all the serving, washing-up and making-up of daily packed lunches – something I knew nothing about in advance. The nights were very noisy – the first night students were still running up and down the corridors at 4 in the morning!! God I needed my sleep!!!

On a positive note, we did visit some very interesting places, such as some Limestone caves, in Han-sur-Lesse.

We also had a day visit to the European Space Centre, where we were able to try out some of the equipment the Astronauts use to train for space –

A Gyroscope, a bouncing chair, which demonstrates how you would walk on the Moon and a spinning chair (I can’t remember what this one was for). We also made our own mini rockets and launched them at the end of the day – most of them shot up around 300 metres into the sky – there were a couple of dud ones though.

We had a day visit into Brussels, where we saw many things including the Mannequin Pis, the Grand Place and the Atomium.

I took a picture of our group of kids by the Atomium – as you can see the sky was very blue and it was 35 degrees Centigrade(95 Fahrenheit)!!

Back at home now; I am sitting here with shockingly swollen ankles and at least five very itchy mosquito bites. I have put back on some the weight, which I lost, but I am sure with my healthy eating regime I will lose the pounds again.

I have finished my book ‘The five people you meet in Heaven’ by Mitch Albom. It’s not a long book, but a good read nonetheless - very philosophical and it shows well how every action has a consequence, which can sometimes tragically alter someone’s life.

I have just started on ‘Beloved’ by Toni Morrison, which I am really enjoying. It’s almost like reading poetry, but not enough like poetry to put off the poetry haters amongst you. I’ll let you know how I get on with it.

Time for me to get on with stuff at home, my home.

Comfortably yours Jo xx

We're having a heatwave, a tropical heatwave

2006-07-06T16:51:00.000+01:00

"Into each Life some rain must fall"

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Well folks, it's now official ' I am hot!!' and I don't mean in the good looking sense, far from it. In my sweaty state I can definitely say that not only do I not feel good looking, but also I don't look good. I have a permanent sheen of perspiration over my whole body and you really don't want to know what's going on between the sweaty thighs. Well perhaps you might, but you're probably just a pervert!!

The past few days in London have been horrendously humid - London is not known for hot weather - but it is known for rain and we have had plenty of that as well. You would have thought that the rain would make things easier, but all it did was raise the humidity levels even higher. For all you ladies out there who are fighting the frizz 'You know what I'm talking about'.

Londoners are not used to coping with hot weather and neither is our transport system. It seem that every day on the news we hear stories about passengers being stuck in the tube(underground) for several hours, where the temperature is almost twice the surface temperature - you could possibly crack an egg on a bald man's head and watch it cook!!

Work in my library has progressed slowly as we take it in turns to stand in front of the office fan, before moving on to the next task. This week is the first week for our Year 10's to do work experience and some of our special needs kids were not able to get placements for whatever reason, so some of these end up working with us. The young lad we have working with us at the moment has speech problems and can find it a bit difficult to carry on a conversation - there is certainly nothing wrong with his brain!! He has carried out all duties more than well and needs only to see a job done once and he remembers it. I am sure he will do well out in the big wide world.

Another lad who started work experience on Monday, has already been sacked!! He started work on the first day, late, he carried on conversations on his mobile(cell) phone, whilst he was supposed to be looking after the children and shouted at them to shut-up, because he wanted to chat - they were four year old children!! Needless to say, the nursery decided he wasn't the child-caring type and sacked him!! He is now working with us in the Library and has spent the whole day scanning documents and is bored to tears - perhaps next time he will learn how to behave??

Haven't had much time to read lately, but I have started to read a book called 'The five people you meet in Heaven' by Mitch Albom. It is a story about an old man who dies in an accident, whilst trying to save the life of a child - he dies and when he wakes up, in the afterlife, goes through a strange journey of discovery with five people who were in his life. I don't really know how everything happens yet but will keep you posted when I finish it.

I don’t know where my children have gone this evening as they are both running late and are normally home by this time. I’m not really in the mood for cooking dinner tonight, so I might get one of them to make a meal for me, for a change.

If I haven’t mentioned this already, I thought I would tell you that I have lost 7lbs on my low cholesterol diet, which I have been keeping to for the past 3 weeks. I haven’t used any particular gimmicks; I have just cut out red meat, cheese, butter, crisps, cakes and biscuits. I have been eating loads of fruit and veg, which seem to be making me run to the toilet more often – but at least I can get into some of my pairs of trousers that haven’t fitted for a while and that’s good news.

I am off to Namur in Belgium on Sunday, so I probably wont be posting next week. This is a school trip for 90 kids and 10 staff. We will be visiting several places around Belgium, including: Limestone caves, a space centre and a theme park. So it should be fun for all, hopefully I will get some decent photos.

Off now to see what I can eat, that’s wholesome and healthy – mmmm, what shall it be celery or carrots, lettuce or radishes – the choices are infinite.

Until then “Let’s all be careful out there” as Paradise Driver likes to say.

Jo xx

It's all over

2006-07-02T20:57:00.000+01:00

I am completely gutted – England is out of the World Cup – but maybe I should really have been prepared. They weren’t playing particularly well throughout the tournament – it was more luck than skill, which put them through to the quarterfinals.

Like I have said before, I am not particularly a football fanatic, but one must support their National team, mustn’t one?? My boys were devastated and their mood reflects the mood of the whole country – 40 years on and still no luck!! Better luck in four years time. I have just found out that Beckham has resigned his captaincy and he looked so sad, the poor love. Thanks for entertaining us Becks!!

BOOK ALERT!!

I have just finished read a book by Vikas Swarup called Q & A – what a great read!!
It is a story about a young man’s life his adventures and a quiz show. It is funny, sad, horrifying and illuminating. Please read this, I promise you will not put it down.

On another note – the boyfriend is getting on my nerves!! It could just be that womany time, but it may just be that he is really annoying me at the moment.

His house is an absolute tip, I did take some photos, but I thought he would not appreciate his shortcomings spread all over the internet. His living room is a heaving mass of rubbish: used cups and plates, half-eaten biscuits, DVDs and CDs scattered all over the carpet, out of their covers, his precious expensive Cannon camera on the sofa, his work suit jacket on the sofa –under his (really expensive) laptop, which he bought to play games and download his photographs-from his expensive camera!! Tools scattered around the room on floors, tables, chairs and sofa – power tools, spanners, hammers, screws, nails, screwdrivers. He doesn’t seem to actually use these tools, because nothing ever seems to be fixed, or new – maybe he just likes to look manly??

He(the boyfriend) has the cheek to come to my house and casually mention that some of my outside window frames need painting – SEETH, FUME, BUBBLE, EXPLODE!!!!

ME: “BEFORE YOU TELL ME WHAT NEEDS DOING IN MY HOUSE, TAKE A GOOD LONG LOOK AT YOURS, YOU BUSY BODY.”

THE BOYFRIEND: “I WAS ONLY TRYING TO HELP YOU DARLING”

ME: “WELL TRYING HELPING YOURSELF FOR A CHANGE!!”

THE BOYFRIEND: “BUT I LOVE YOU”

I really shouldn’t get angry with him, but I just can’t help it sometimes, he just gets under my skin – I am an independent woman – I don’t like to be told what to do, especially by someone who is so disorganised.

I have been practising with photoshop again and have used my rose photo and played around with tones - I love this colour.

G'night all. Jo xx

At the end of the day...

2006-06-28T18:22:00.000+01:00

"The sun goes down" is one of my Mum's favourite sayings. Basically, it just means 'Que sera, sera' or 'What will be, will be' - she is right you know!!

I have been travelling in to work on the bus, since my car broke down last Saturday week. To get to work for 8am, I must leave my house at around 7.15am to arrive at the Bus stop around 7.30pm. It's quite a long walk from my house to the bus stop and with my little legs and excess weight, it's quite a trial!! Every morning and evening I trudge up hill and down dale - even though I really do need the exercise - I wish I could sprout wings and fly myself everywhere.

I hate arriving late for work and on Monday I waited 25 minutes for a bus, in the rain and feeling miserable. I got to work at 8.20am. Even though I am the boss, I still don’t like getting in late, so I was already stressing.

Then some school kids got on the bus playing some Ragga Reggae on their tinny mobile phones, which was more than mildly annoying.

Then a man and woman, who I presume were a couple decided to have an argument – they stank of drink – at 8 am!! He spat at her, she slapped him across the face, he slapped her back – while this was going on I was trying to read my book and most people on the bus were trying to pretend that everything was hunky dory (fine). The bus driver, who was already having a bad day, decided he’d had enough and told them that if they didn’t get off he would call the Law. They got off still shouting and the whole bus heaved a sigh of relief and CRASSSHHH!!! Another bus hit our bus and tore off the side mirror – luckily it was quite near my stop so I got off and walked the rest of the way, leaving the bus drivers arguing about who was to blame.

Then as I was walking through Roe Green Park I got a phone call from one of my work colleagues to say that her Grandmother had just died and she would not be coming in to work.

Then all the people I had asked(and confirmed) to come to a Demo Visit for a new library system, didn’t turn up – so I had to ring everyone to remind them that the Rep was waiting patiently to speak to all of us. At least the Rep was really nice about it and was quite happy to wait with a hot cup of tea and a peanut cookie.

Then during the day I tried to ring my son to ask him something and a voice on my mobile told me that I was unable to make outgoing calls?? When I phoned T-Mobile to ask what was the problem, they told me I hadn’t paid my bill. I told them that my bank pays by direct debit and they told me that the direct debit agreement didn’t seem to be in place – so I had to set it up again and pay a bill for £85 before they would re-connect me.

Then on my way home I got on the bus and discovered that my pass had expired and I had no cash on me. So I got off the bus, went into a newsagent and bought a new Oyster Card with my debit card.

Then as I walked through the door of my house, I received a phone call from my garage telling me that my car was ready to collect, which meant I had to leave again, take another bus into Willesden and then 10 minutes walk from the bus stop to the garage.

My car is now working fine and I have paid £480 for a re-conditioned gear box and new clutch.

I drove up the road had a little cry and then felt so much better.

An hour or so after arriving home from what seemed the longest day – the sun went down.

Hasta Mañana.

Jo xx

Books, life and 'The Game'

2006-06-25T16:50:00.000+01:00

It is now half-time in the England versus Ecuador World Cup match and what a boring match it is turning out to be. I am not an expert, but my eldest son tells me that the lack of thrills comes from the 4, 5, 1 formation, which Sven Goran Ericsson has chosen for this game – what do I know – all I know is that England just seem to spend most of the time in the middle of the pitch, kicking the ball from one to another to another – boring, boring!!

I have finished reading ‘A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian’ and I must say I did really enjoy this book.

It was not as funny as some of the reviews said it was. It did have some funny moments, but the humour was at the expense of peoples habits, which although amusing at times, can also be quite sad, especially when it is poking fun at old people and their eccentricities. All of us do this at times, but when you read it in black and white it does make you feel uncomfortable

“He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone”

(New Testament Gospel of John)

This book deals with issues surrounding why economic migrants come into this country ….

We interrupt this review to say ENGLAND HAS SCORED A GOAL!!! Well done Beckham about time you scored one of your specials.

Back to the book …

Immigrants/Economic migrants coming from all over Eastern Europe come here for all types of reasons, to escape oppressive regimes, to escape victimisation , to escape a poor standard of living, to suck this country’s social services dry and to abuse a very lax legal system. The last two things should not be applied to those immigrants who come here to work, but unfortunately there are always those who abuse the system.

One of the main characters in the book ‘Valentina’ the big busty blonde, is a confusing character, I felt dislike, admiration and pity for her, but really she is a victim of global change. Read the book I think you will enjoy it.

My Dad (bless him) reads ‘The Times’ newspaper and everyweek he saves some of the supplements for me namely ‘The Knowledge’ and ‘Books’. I enjoy reading these every week as they keep me up-to-date on all new publications. In this week’s issue of books I noticed a new publication by, Will Self (Grumpy old man), it’s called ‘The Book of Dave’ and deals with a London Cabby and his life and loves. He writes his 'Cabbies Credo' on some metal tablets and buries them in his love rival’s garden. They are discovered 500 years later and become the basis for a new religion!! It sounds really interesting and I am sure all the London Cabbies out there, might find it fascinating reading – maybe even my brother London Cabby might have a little go.

Anyhow, I am going to get hold of a copy and will let you know what I think.

I did mention the other day that I really enjoyed reading Robert Heinlein and Anne McCaffrey books. These two below were particulary enjoyable you should give them a go, if you have time.

ENGLAND ARE NOW THROUGH TO THE QUARTER FINALS - BECKHAM IS A LEGEND!!

Well happy reading folks.

Jo xx

Life, aliens and loadsa food

2006-06-21T11:25:00.000+01:00

Last Sunday was the family bbq. This time it was for the youngest member of the family Sarah, who is now two years old!!

My Mum for some reason always gets a little stressed at these occasions, even though most of the time it’s only family. This time my brother’s in- laws came round to celebrate the day with us – her cue to stress just a little more than usual.

MY SOLUTION – GET HER PISSED!! (TIPSY)

She likes Martini with Lemonade, so we gave her a large Martini, which always goes straight to her head and makes her a bit giggly. I have recently introduced her to Advokaat (egg nog) with lemonade (Snowball) – she loves it and has a tipple now and then. On Sunday I introduced her to Pimms. I made a jugful in the correct English manner, served with cucumber and fresh garden mint and plenty of ice. She loved it, as do I.

My sister (Palmers Green) made her usual contribution of trifle and Birthday cake – there was very little left of this as it is a family favourite – the little that was left was kept for my Dad, who shouldn’t really eat sweet stuff, as he is a diabetic, but he can’t resist my sister’s cakes.

My brother London Cabby, made two massive potato omelettes, which the kids devoured with gusto – most of the kids in our family have good appetites and when we have parties, it’s a bit like a swarm of locusts descending!! You have to be fast to get a look in.

My mum made a large paella, enough to feed an army – all of us except my youngest son love this dish and even though there were loads of other things to eat, this was definitely the most popular.

For some reason I seem to make good salads, so my contribution was a large Seafood Cocktail (Prawns and Ocean Sticks) with Mayonnaise, tomato puree, tomato ketchup, paprika, lemon juice and freshly ground black pepper. My Dad loves this – since he has a few teeth left it is easy for him to eat and he thoroughly enjoys it. I also made a large fresh salad, which included: Lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, onion, avocado pear and olives stuffed with anchovies.

As per usual, there was far too much food and ‘tuppelware’ as my mum calls it, was freely distributed to those who wished to take home doggy bags, full of leftover, burgers, sausages, chops, ribs, chicken wings and anything else edible.

By the way, you may be wondering how my low cholesterol diet is going?? Well it was fine up until Sunday and then I ate everything that you see marked in red in this post. The alien in my stomach, which I have not referred to for quite a while, was screaming to be released – I think I overdid it a bit – I have been paying for the overindulgence ever since. Oh woe is me!!

I am as we speak back on the wagon - no honestly I am!!

By the way, well done England - poor Owen looks like he will be out for the rest of the tournament, bad luck.

I have had enough of fiddling with blogger, html, posting for the time being, so I am off to watch some TV - I have Spyra Gyra 'Morning Dance' playing on itunes and keeping me company.

Until the morrow - parting is such sweet sorrow!!

Jo xx

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away ...

2006-06-18T20:57:00.000+01:00

"But now it looks as though they're here to stay.
Oh yesterday came suddenly"

The morning started OK.

I took my son to work at 'Tesco,where he works on the cash till every Saturday - I was just on the A406 North Circular, coming up to the turn-off for 'Tesco' and 'IKEA', when as I slowed down and changed gear, I heard a metallic clunking noise, which did not sound good. I thought to myself, just get into the Car park and at least you will be able to sort things out safely. How I got there I don't know, because everytime I tried to change gear that awful noise seemed to be getting louder. I got into the car park and parked at the quiet end where not many people park - my son went into work and I called the 'AA' - my knights in shining armour. They said they would be about an hour and 10 mins and would text me when they were getting nearer. I thought - I'll go and get a newspaper and a coffee and sit in the cafeteria - NO CHANCE - bought the paper, got in the queue for a latte, sat down and my phone chimed with a text message 'the patrolman will be with you in 2 minutes' - well that was good, but I was really looking forward to my latte(skinny, by the way) - so I went and got a paper cup from the counter and ran back to my car, the guy was already there waiting. Now that's what I call service!!

He had a look at the car, there was a sharp intake of breath and then it was 'Sorry love, it looks like it's your gearbox'. GRRREEAATT!! I am so unlucky with cars, it probably doesn't help that they are always at least 10 years old by the time I get them, but it's not like I don't look after them.

BUGGER
BUGGER
BUGGER

I then had to wait an hour and 40 minutes for an 'AA' car transporter to come and take me to my garage, where as you know I am on first name terms with most of the mechanics, the owners, the office staff and probably even the guys that deliver spare parts. I was thinking of getting a camp bed put in for me somewhere as I spend so much time there!

By the time I got to the garage it was 12 noon, three and a quarter hours since I had left my house that morning - with no weekly shopping also no shopping from Portobello Road, where I normally buy really nice halal lamb chops, for the family bbq, which was today. Oh, yes and no car.

I had arranged to go to help my Mum with some more house cleaning - it was a really hot day and I was starting to feel a bit fretful, I had the wrong shoes for walking in, so I went and got a mini cab up to my Mum's. I was there for a couple of hours, when my boyfriend phoned an said that he had finished work early and he offered to take me to get my shopping. Lovely I thought.

I got to 'Tesco' again - and got myself a trolley and proceeded to work my way through my shopping list - the boyfriend kept disappearing and coming back with random items for himself - he kept phoning me to ask where I was and kept asking me 'Have you finished yet?'. Good Lord!! If you offer to take someone shopping don't start bloody hassling them all the way through their shopping, as a result of his hassling, I came away without, pasta, olive oil, vinegar, sanitary towels, toothpaste and prawns.

Took all the shopping home, whilst unpacking stuff to put it away - the boyfriend - kept giving me helpful tips such as, don't forget to put your frozen stuff in the freezer, did you know that you have 4 tins of chopped tomatoes and my personal favourite 'I don't think you will get all that in there' %@&*, if I needed advice I would have married him!!!

Had to go to Wing Yip's to get the prawns, as they had been forgotten! Then went to Kingsbury HighRoad, for the halal chops. Shopping All Done, hurray!!

Back to boyfriend's for the night - to chill-out. He's not all bad and definitely has many good points.

In the grand scheme of things I don't have a bad life really - but a good moan always helps!!

Today I bought myself a copy of 'a Short History of Tractors in Ukranian' by Marina Lewycka, don't know if I will enjoy it, but it has had some good reviews and is on the bestseller list, so I'll give it a go.

No pictures today, I can't get anything to upload??

You say goodbye and I say hello. Jo xx

Is there life on Mars??

2006-06-16T19:03:00.000+01:00

I am not really in the mood for posting today, so I thought I would just show you some of my favourite sci fi/fantasy pictures from the web - also a couple of websites, which I think are really OK!!

I can't remember where I got this one from, but I like the effects and textures around the face, it is called 'Ice Mother'

The following three are by an artist called Doug Kovacs, he seems to have several different styles. The following are called 'tree lady', 'bronze dragon' (this could be one of my Anne McCaffrey dragons??) and 'black hell'. Have a look at his website.

The following are by an artist called Selina Fenech, I like her work, but her graphite work is, I think, more powerful than her colour work. The pictures below are 'love me not', 'bw fairy', 'motherhood', 'merwater' and 'strange kind of blue'.

The final piece is by an artist called Slawek Wojtowicz it is called 'Baby boomers' it is not as traditional as the other pieces, but- what the hell!! I like what I like!! OK!!

My favourite all-time artist/illustrator is Arthur Rackham, who illustrated so many fairy tales and bring back many happy memories of my childhood in Victoria on Lillington Gardens Estate, reading by the light of the streetlamp, which was right outside my window.

Always a dreamer, always yours. Jo xx

Got to get it into my life

2006-06-15T21:20:00.000+01:00

Just lately my life has been loads of ups and downs, highs and lows, fasts and slows - don't worry I am not going to start spouting poetry!! Although I have dabbled in the past, but when I read it back now it is so mawkish and soppy that I would think a teenager had written it, not a frustrated housewife - which I was - well kind of.

Anyhow, work has been just that, some days when I am doing what I enjoy and can finish what I have started I am really happy. I know it sounds strange, but even clearing out a cupboard full of old paperwork is quite cathartic!! It's my version of a life laundry.

Today, apart from having a meeting with all my staff about how we are going to cope with one less person (cutbacks at work) - I took some photos of some of the board displays, which we have all worked on, in the Library.

This one and the one below are the Staff as Children boards - We have a Competition up and running for the students to guess which staff are pictured.

Our World Cup 2006 board - we couldn't get cloth flags for all the countries.

We obviously had to have one board just for England (COME ON ENGLAND!!!) Please note the little book rack in front of the board, this has all sorts of books, which are football related.

The picture above is our new parasol from IKEA, which I bought out of petty cash - I got fed-up with the kids complaining about the sun beating down on their heads and the PCs overheating. It's not very central as the computer desks are all wired-up, but it does the job. Not bad eh??

I am just finishing this as I want to watch tonights recap programme of Big Brother, so I am cutting this short.

Have a good evening and don't take any wooden nickels!!

Jo xx

BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!!

2006-06-13T17:17:00.000+01:00

I have had a really stressful day today, maybe I am just really anal about work, but I really do think that if you are paid to do a job you should work. Call me old fashioned, but that’s just the way I think. I always give 100% and feel that I am letting myself down if I do any less. Shame not everyone thinks the same way!!

THAT’S MY LITTLE RANT OUT OF THE WAY

No wait there’s more – if people know what they should be doing at work, why don’t they just do it – why do they have to wait to be told, and when you have a go, why do they then say ‘Well you didn’t ask me to do that’!!

Lets face it; you just can’t get the workers these days!!

RANT OVER

Actually after I had finished my ranting, crying, blaming, stressing, I felt so much better. It’s true what they say ‘It’s not good to bottle things up, let them out’.

NICER BITS NOW

I took delivery of a load of new books, including two called ‘ One thousand Welsh words’ and ‘First Thousand Japanese words’. We don’t actually teach these languages at my school, but we do occasionally get requests for books on different languages, so I thought it would be fun to get something other than, French, German and Spanish. I think I will take them out and have a practice.

The World Cup is in full force in my house, we seem to have every televised match on – my younger son suddenly having developed a pure passion for football . I know he enjoys Spurs and England playing, but the last few days we have had the Italy/Ghana match, Australia/Japan, USA/Czech Republic and possibly every other match – I don’t share his love of the game and even my elder son is getting fed-up with all the football.

ENGLAND WILL WIN ANYWAY (POSITIVE THINKING)

I haven’t had a lot of time to read lately, I have just been so tired that when 10pm swings by my eyelids start to droop and I have to drag myself to bed. I just manage to stay awake for BIG BROTHER at 9pm every night – I am a little obsessed with all the characters and they certainly have had some characters this year.

PETE TO WIN!!

My boyfriend has offered to cook for me this evening, he has also had a stressful day and I have probably been not as sympathetic with him as I could be, but frankly sometimes –

I DON’T GIVE A FUCK!!!

Well I do really, but I am still de-stressing myself and swearing sometimes helps to relieve the pressure.

Anyway, I'm off now to eat my fat free, low cholesterol dinner - delightful!!

Jo xx

My low cholesterol life

2006-06-12T20:15:00.000+01:00

It has now been 5 days since my doctor told me that my cholesterol is a tad high! My blood pressure is also a tad high - and lets face it my age is getting a bit high! The only thing that's not high at the moment, is my mental state. Don't get me wrong it's not low, but it could do with a bit of a boost.

I have been exceedingly good with my low cholesterol diet and have managed to lose 6lbs this week. The reason why I have lost so much, so quickly is that I have been very active.

Helping my mum get the house ready for a party next Sunday.

Gardening

Running up and down the stairs

Seeing my boyfriend!! (Don't ask)

Helping out with School 'Picnic in the Park' event

The other main reason is that it has been hot, hot, HOT!!!

I always seem to eat less when it is hot, and mainly fruit and salad and gallons of water, which is definitely healthy, so let's hope the hot weather continues just enough to help me lose about a stone in weight - wishful thinking I know, but one can dream???

I have been discussing fantasies with people at work and we nearly all agreed that there is something about men with wings that seems quite appealing. So I thought you might like to see a few of my favourite pictures from the web.

I don't remember where I got this one from, but I love his wings.

I think I got this one from an art web site, sorry don't remember which one!

I LOVE JOHN PHILIP LAW, HE WAS THE ANGEL IN BARBARELLA IN THE 60's

Hope you enjoy these as much as I do.

Until another day. Jo xx

Football, food and life

2006-06-10T12:33:00.000+01:00

COME ON ENGLAND!!

I just had to get that one out of way first.

Today England are playing Paraguay in Frankfurt, Germany, it will be their first game of World Cup 2006. I am not a great football fan, but I do feel drawn in when our National Team is playing and get quite emotional if they lose.

It has been so lovely seeing everyone flying their flags from their houses and cars, not just England flags but other nations flags too. Yesterday I saw 3 different flags hanging from a house, Angola, England and Portugal, which I thought was really great. This morning I saw a car with both a flag of England and Ghana attached to it. It just goes to show what a multicultural place London is!!

Here is a picture of my younger son and some of his friends outside the new Wembley Stadium - he took this one as part of his A level Art project.

They are obviously England Supporters!!

If England should get knocked out and Spain is still in, I will probably switch my allegiance to them - being of Spanish descent it kind of makes sense??

I don't know how hot it is today, but it is bloody hot. By half past eleven this morning I was already cursing having offered my elder son a lift to several shops - apart from the fact it was hot, for some reason all the boy racers were out in force. Two little red japanese sporty looking cars, overtook me and nearly killed the oncoming drivers in their rush to get who-knows-where?? One guy nearly drove into a barrier (twice) in his haste to get one car ahead - at one point I drew level with him and when I looked over at him he was drinking a cup of coffee and looked stoned out of his head - why are there so many dickheads on the road?

I did some food shopping, mainly to kick-off my healthy eating campaign, I bought:

Salmon fillets in an orange and ginger marinade

Chicken fillets, which I will marinade with olive oil and garlic (then grill)

Rump Steak (to grill)

Salad Stuff, including: cherry tomatoes, cucumber, mixed leaf salad, wild rocket, advocados

Vegetables, including: courgettes, green beans, beansprouts, carrots, asparagus

Fruit, including: bananas, cherries, apples, pears, peaches

I have six months before I go back to the doctor to re-check my cholesterol, which is a tad high, so hence the healthy eating.

There is something seriously wrong with Blogger - I can't seem to get more than one photo downloaded, before it starts playing-up. Also, it only seems to let me change one line to a large font and won't change anthing else. Does anyone else have this problem, or is it just me?? HELP ANYONE!!

Life is beautiful

2006-06-06T17:36:00.000+01:00

Today has been a very pleasant day - I have been working in the Lower School Library - this is my favourite place to work.

I have spent nearly £800 on books - which is my favourite pastime, apart from eating, reading and sex.

I have had to do some creative accounting and ask the reps to bill me at different times (months) as we (the school) are having cash flow problems and £800 is an awful lot of money, but then I was buying for both libraries and the books were sooooo lovely - I just couldn't help myself!!

My boyfriend has a rosebush, which grows in his front garden next to a wall, by the pavement. People (nasty people) regularly come and help themselves to his roses, which are the real old fashioned type and have a wonderful smell. I asked him if I could take one before it too was stolen - I took this picture of it. I have messed around with photoshop, darkening the surrounding area, to highlight the beautiful rose - I hope you like it - I really wish you could smell it.

I just have to tell you about something, which I ate yesterday. I had some leftover,

boiled new royal jersey potatoes. I sliced them up and fried them in extra virgin olive oil, with red and green peppers, red onions, loads of garlic, I dolloped some sticky rib bbq sauce and finally added some crispy bacon.

OH MY GOD!!!

Definitely Heart Attack food, but I always say 'a little bit of what you fancy does you good' and that certainly hit the spot.

It really doesn't take much to make me happy - although you certainly don't want to be around me when I am miserable - but you don't want to know about that.

Off tomorrow to help my Mum with some more cleaning, painting and decorating, I can do with the exercise.

A short blog today as I want to look at the blue sky before it disappears again.

Other lives other worlds

2006-06-04T22:25:00.000+01:00

I have always felt that life was too real, I prefer to live in my own little world, where there really are fairies at the bottom of the garden, where parallel worlds can exist and if the time continuum is disturbed, paradoxes can occur. I know that I have already lost you - I told you - I like my own little world.

I love this picture, I scanned it from a Dorling Kindersley X-Men book, erased all the text around it and then gave it a photo negative effect. The icy blue flames around phoenix give it a cold, beautiful, ethereal feel.

The first book I remember reading as a child, which turned me on to fantasy was the 'Blue Fairy Book' by Andrew Lang. I always enjoyed reading fairy stories, when I was young this was my main escape from my brothers and sisters, once the book was open, I disappeared inside it's pages,only to reappear when called for a meal (another important love in my life).

Last year I was amazed to see that the 'Folio Society' one of many book clubs I subscribe to from time to time, was offering it as part of an introductory offer to hook in past members - I couldn't resist and am now the proud owner of this beautifully bound and illustrated edition.

From fairy stories I moved on to the Narnia Series by C.S.Lewis . My headmaster used to read several passages a day to us in the school hall and you could hear a pin drop - we couldn't wait for the next day's installment.

Still reading mainly fantasy, I moved onto Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings', heavy going for a 12/13 year old.!

Then I discovered Science Fiction - I started reading Robert Heinlein books, Waldo & Magic inc, Space Cadet, Farnham's freehold,Stranger in a Strange Land, The moon is a harsh mistress and possibly all the rest of Heinlein's stuff. I started reading, Asimov, Arthur C.Clarke, Aldiss, Simak, Le Guin - I'm stopping now because I could go on forever (boring) - but at least you have some idea of how keen I am.

I have always told my boys that there is a Santa Claus, tooth fairy, elves, fairies and any other mythical creatures (we don't really do Easter bunnies here in England). Unfortunately or fortunately, some might say, they are completed grounded and don't share my enthusiasm for all other worldly things, which is just as well, they think that I am a bit OTT with my books and DVDs and Star Wars collectibles.

There are so many horrors in the world, which I do also read about, but sometimes you just need somewhere to escape to 'Pern' has been one of my recent escape routes, Anne McCaffrey has created a whole world full of teleporting Dragons, which travel in time and space - my kind of life!!

"I propose to hang onto this life as long as I can and learn as much as I can. Maybe wisdom and understanding are reserved for a later existence and maybe they aren‚t for us at all, ever. Either way, I'm satisfied to be living and enjoying it. Mary my sweet, carpe that old diem! -- it's the only game in town."

Lazarus Long in Methuselah's Children (Robert A.Heinlein)

Live long and prosper, Nanu nanu. Jo xx

Life and Death

2006-06-03T17:59:00.000+01:00

The first of June was a very sad day for all fans of Rocio Jurado. Beloved by millions of Spanish speakers around the world “la mas grande de Espana” (Spain’s greatest) died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 61.

My mother is absolutely devastated – and I am baffled – I never knew how much she felt for this woman, whose name I have heard for years, but who meant nothing to me. All I can relate it to, is how I felt when I heard of Diana Princess of Wales’ death – it’s not so much the death of the person, but everything that person represents in your life, your children, your parents, events in your life. To me Diana’s death, was about her two boys (I have two boys) left motherless - about her failed marriage (mine too) - about her relationship with her family and friends and about her coping with just living, just sorting out her life and suddenly just dying. Women around the world felt a special kinship with her, regardless of whether or not they had ever met her.

My mum’s feelings about Rocio Jurado relate to her own feelings towards her mother (we called her big Yaya), who sadly died just over two years ago.

My grandmother was quite a demanding character and lived with my parents for at least 10 years at the end of her life, she was 92 years old when she died and had a reasonably good life, although to hear her talk, her life was one of unbearable suffering. My mum still finds it hard to come to terms with her death.

I don't think I was really as sympathetic as I could have been, I just fobbed her off by saying 'well who the hell is she?' and my brother London Cabby sort of gave a little chuckle as if to say 'well I don't know who the hell she is either!!' My Mum got really upset and started to cry, which prompted my brother to give her a big hug, which made her cry more, which meant I had to join in the group hug - which eventually made her feel better.

Rocio Jurado’s mother also died of pancreatic cancer in her early fifties and Rocio regularly dedicated songs to the memory of her mother, passionate and sad songs, which moved her listeners to tears and reminded people of their loved ones. Her life has been an open book to readers of ‘Hola’ and similar publications and her fans have suffered and rejoiced with her - during bad times, such as the death of her mother, her divorces – during good times, the birth of her children and grandchildren. She is greatly mourned by the whole of Spain.

I thought I would add this picture of a gate, just to finish off this blog.

God Bless you. Jo xx

Ain't nature grand!!

2006-06-02T12:43:00.000+01:00

Today, since it was a lovely morning, I felt the urge to take pictures of stuff. Here are a few of my efforts.

I don't know what the plant above is called, but it grows in all the nooks and crannies in my garden. I love the colour of the leaves and the little yellow flowers.

This is a close-up of a broken flowerpot, I just thought it looked interesting

We get a lot of blue tits visiting the garden, they are so cute!

This Ladybird was trying to hide in a Pine Cone - I collect pine cones wherever I go - most of them are from Kew Gardens, here in London, but I have a few big ones from Yosemite Park in California, some from Mexico and some from Spain, France and Germany - it's one of my things - don't ask.

A close-up of a bit of brick work, I liked the texture of it.

Magpies are as common as pidgeons in this area, sometimes when you come out of your house, it's like a scene from 'The Birds', they sit on every available roof and aerial - it can be a bit scary and very noisy!!

I'm off out tonight, going to Grim's Dyke Hotel somewhere between Hatch End and Bushey. It's supposed to be a Murder Mystery Evening and I am going with a group of women, so it should be a laugh - i'll let you know - it looks really lovely on the website. I know food is included in the price, but i'm not sure what that will be?? Another mystery??

You may have noticed that my food reporting has tapered off lately, this is because I am trying to lose some weight - if I don't talk/write about it I won't think about it so much - well that's what I am trying to convince myself of.

Laters. Jo xx

Life is for living!

2006-05-31T10:15:00.000+01:00

The Candytuft and White Lilac have faded away, but there is life bursting out everywhere in the garden.

The roses are in bud and a few of them are already unfolding - ready for 'flaming June' - that's a laugh!! Even though the water situation is quite bad here in Blighty, I would still like us to have some kind of a summer, although it's not looking too good at the moment.

Yesterday, I went with my younger son to the pictures (cinema) to see the latest X-Men film. I did enjoy the film, but was disappointed with some of the events in the film. I won't spoil it by telling you anything that happened, suffice to say it is not true to the original plotlines. I did spot Stan Lee, doing his little bit. I went to the Staples Corner 'UGC', which doesn't charge west-end prices, but even so, it still cost me £20 for two tickets, 1 large Coke, 1 large Nachos with everything, 1 bottle of water and 1 small sweet popcorn - SCANDALOUS!!!

I phoned my sister (Palmers Green) yesterday, just for a chat. We usually talk/see each other at least once a week, but for some reason lately we havn't been in touch. She is having a new kitchen fitted - it has been her dream for at least 15 years to have a kitchen, which she can run a home business from - making cakes and cake decorations. Hopefully, I can get hold of some photos to show you some of her stuff - the cakes are delicious!! Anyhow, she is innundated with plumbers, electricians and such, all the kitchen units are lined up along her house, waiting to be fitted - I bet her, her husband and two children will be ecstatic once it is all done.

Just had a quick look in my photo folder and found these pictures (not brilliant) the cake was for our little niece last year.

A close-up of the figure

I am still sitting around in my PJs, having a really lazy morning - well I have already washed two loads of clothes and hung them out to dry, washed a few dishes, paid the window cleaner, ironed a shirt for my older son....erm, I think that's it for now.

I am now having a cup of coffee and watching David Lynch's 'Dune' for about the 100th time. I know that it was panned/hated when it came out some years back, but I just love it!! Sting - looking much younger - looks really fit especially in his tight fitting pants. I also have a thing about David Bowie in 'Labyrinth' as the Goblin King, too sexy for words!!!

I was going to subject you to pictures, but I think Blogger is having a little hiccup, perhaps I will add them later??

It's such a lovely day today, perhaps I will take myself off for a walk, I definitely do need the exercise, although the ever-present alien in my stomach has not threatened to burst forth lately. This is mainly due to the fact that I have been trying to be sensible (for once) with my eating and have not stuffed myself full at every meal. Shame the weighing scales don't notice my efforts, ah well!! That's life!!

Bye for now

You think my life is bad

2006-05-29T16:20:00.000+01:00

This is just a short one.

I have been reading other peoples blogs Paradise Driver and came across this link for a photographer who has taken photos of rooms/apartments in Hong Kong, which are small to say the least. Anyone in this country who moans about the state of British housing, should try living in one of these. I certainly could not - there are no windows that I can see and where is the toilet/bathroom?? Most of the people who live in them are old and in their underpants.

No 7 - Looks quite cosy
No 15 - Seems bright and spacious considering their are several people seated in this small area
No 25 - Even manages to have a partition!!
No 36 - Does she even live here or is it just for storage?
No 48 - Looks surprisingly spacious (have they been to IKEA?)
No 85 - The bed is obviously the most important thing in his life.
No 94 - What does he do with those rubber gloves??

The women in general seem to have more clutter than the men

We should count our blessings!!

Until later.